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Postnatal care: exploring the views of first-time mothers

Postnatal care: exploring the views of first-time mothers
Postnatal care: exploring the views of first-time mothers
Government policy has highlighted the provision of a postnatal service that responds to women's physical, psychological, emotional and social needs. This paper presents the results of a small in-depth qualitative study that aimed to explore the views of first-time mothers with regard to the level of support they would have liked to receive from health visitors during the postnatal period, focusing on the theme of health visitor contact. Homogenous sampling was used to identify seven first-time mothers. Data was collected from semi-structured interviews and analysed using a thematic network approach. Four organising themes were identified - health visitor contact, emotional adjustment to motherhood, infant feeding and other support.

Although the first-time mothers valued the postnatal support provided by the health visitor highly, there were varying levels of satisfaction with the frequency and pattern of health visitor contacts. The findings also raise issues about the perception of need and the value of home visiting during the postnatal period.
postnatal care, adaptation to motherhood, qualitative research, needs assessment, women's experiences
1462-2815
26-29
Bailey, Sarah
e7d4c252-a377-4817-a883-019bb172c00c
Bailey, Sarah
e7d4c252-a377-4817-a883-019bb172c00c

Bailey, Sarah (2010) Postnatal care: exploring the views of first-time mothers. Community Practitioner, 83 (12), 26-29.

Record type: Article

Abstract

Government policy has highlighted the provision of a postnatal service that responds to women's physical, psychological, emotional and social needs. This paper presents the results of a small in-depth qualitative study that aimed to explore the views of first-time mothers with regard to the level of support they would have liked to receive from health visitors during the postnatal period, focusing on the theme of health visitor contact. Homogenous sampling was used to identify seven first-time mothers. Data was collected from semi-structured interviews and analysed using a thematic network approach. Four organising themes were identified - health visitor contact, emotional adjustment to motherhood, infant feeding and other support.

Although the first-time mothers valued the postnatal support provided by the health visitor highly, there were varying levels of satisfaction with the frequency and pattern of health visitor contacts. The findings also raise issues about the perception of need and the value of home visiting during the postnatal period.

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More information

Published date: December 2010
Keywords: postnatal care, adaptation to motherhood, qualitative research, needs assessment, women's experiences

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 169853
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/169853
ISSN: 1462-2815
PURE UUID: e260d8fe-7e34-4741-b305-fe3fb8baf41f

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 23 Dec 2010 10:01
Last modified: 08 Jan 2022 05:34

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Contributors

Author: Sarah Bailey

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