This article documents the experience of birth mothers with a child placed within the foster care system regarding their parental commitment while describing its manifestations and the characteristics that are susceptible to influence commitment. Qualitative methods were used to analyse 12 interviews of mothers that have one or two children in foster care and describe manifestations of parental commitment for those mothers. Also, a systemic perspective permits to understand parental commitment in the placement context in association with the relationship to the placed child, the foster parents, the youth protection services and the social representation of the parenting role. This perspective of birth mothers in the placement context allows to reflect on the best practices regarding birth parents’ parental commitment.