Supportive and nonsupportive qualities of child health nurses' contacts with strained infant mothers

Aim. To examine how strained mothers perceive the support they receive from Swedish child health nurse. Population and methods. Twenty‐four consecutive strained, infant mothers at nine child health centres were invited to participate. The mothers were interviewed when the child was 8 months of age. The mothers also reported their perceptions of their parenting competence by means of a questionnaire. Results. Five components of the nurses' support were discerned: positive emotional support, positive informational support, support of the parental role which was either positive or negative, and pressure to accept social norms on child care. A third of the mothers reported strong positive support, decreasing depressive symptoms and favourable perceptions of their own parenting ability. Another third of the mothers reported negative contacts with the nurses, persisting depressive symptoms, and unfavourable perceptions of their parenting competence. The nurses' pressure for the mothers to adapt to certain social norms of child care seemed to affect the latter group of mothers negatively. Conclusion. In order to support strained mothers effectively it is necessary to clarify and resolve conflicts between different programme objectives.