Abstract
Purpose
As a basic study to identify nursing actions that will help mothers to grow into the maternal role, this study examined, from the viewpoint of the maternal role , the subjective experience of mother-infant interactions among mothers breastfeeding their babies in the postnatal period.
Methods
The subjects were mothers who wanted to breastfeed their baby, who had their children in the same room with them for 24 hours a day, and who had a healthy postpartum course together with their baby. Consent to participate in the study was voluntary, and level of care and confidentiality were guaranteed. Data were collected through participant observation and semi-structured interviews, and the observed mother-infant interactions and mothers' perceptions reported in the semi-structured interviews were taken as single episodes. A qualitative inductive analysis was then performed.
Results
Five healthy primiparae and seven healthy multiparae agreed to participate in the study. Eighty-five episodes, identified from semi-structured interviews and observed mother-child interactions during breastfeeding from directly after childbirth until one month, were qualitatively analyzed based on role awareness reported by the mothers themselves. From this analysis 10 categories and 25 subcategories expressing mothers' role awareness were derived. The 10 categories were "Inhibition of behavior seeking child's needs," "Arrangements for effective suckling," "Positive approach to child," "Conflict between responding to child's needs and mother's own physical needs," "Trial and error in finding methods of care suited to the child's characteristics," "Confirming the needs of the child," "Deepening the bond with the child," "Assessment of breastfeeding," "Rebuilding of maternal role," and "Limited response to child."
Conclusion
Categories to evaluate acquisition of the maternal role among mothers who breastfed their children were identified.
As mothers are acquiring the skill to breastfeed their children they also grow into the maternal role and develop their abilities. Breastfeeding was shown to be an important act of nurturing that helps mothers to acquire a maternal role attainment.
It was found that even when observed interactions were the same, actions may be done with different role awareness among mothers, and that maternal role awareness cannot be evaluated using the quantity of observed interactions alone.
