Abstract
Persistent crying of a 1-2 month-old baby is distressful to a mother, particularly a primipara, and it can lead to a crisis situation when the mother feels herself unable to cope. In order to understand such mothers' experiences and to reveal factors associated with the development of a crisis situation, a qualitative study was carried out on 30 healthy primiparas whose babies also had no health problems. A semi-structured interview was used to question the mothers concerning continuous crying by their babies at one month or later after birth and their own feelings about the crying. A content analysis revealed that all mothers faced persistent crying by their babies and that for 19 of the women the situation reached crisis proportion. Significant factors associated with the crisis were the mother's perception of the crying and availability or non-availability of support from family members or others. Mothers who experienced crisis felt themselves unable to stop the crying by any means, or did not receive support from others when their babies were crying. The analysis also disclosed that: ・ Mothers' not having access to appropriate information about child care experienced anxiety because they did not know what to expect ・ Mothers who became confused by information about child care experienced loss of self-confidence ・ Mothers unable to decide what information applied to them tended to become irritated by persistent crying Thus, systems for helping primiparas dealing with their babies' crying during the first two months after birth should take into account the women's own perceptions about the crying and how well they use information on child care.
