Mothers' perceptions of their health choices, related duties and responsibilities: A qualitative interview study.

OBJECTIVE

to describe mothers' perceptions of their health choices, related duties and responsibilities.

DESIGN

descriptive exploratory study with qualitative research method.

SETTING

interviews conducted after the clients' regular health visits to one publicly provided maternity clinic in a southern city in Finland.

PARTICIPANTS

13 mothers aged between 21 and 40-years-old, who were pregnant or had given birth in the past four weeks. Six of participants were pregnant or had delivered for first time and it was the second to fourth pregnancy for the remainder.

DATA COLLECTION AND DATA ANALYSIS: one-to-one semi-structured interviews using the inductive content analysis method.

FINDINGS: women reported increased responsibility for their health choices for themselves and their baby during pregnancy. However, their duties and responsibilities were seldom discussed at maternity clinics. The duty to reconsider their health choices was described as a predictor of commitment to their pregnancy and motherhood, but they recognised that it required sufficient knowledge to realise this. In addition, the mothers said their health choices changed from private to one of public interest during this period.

CONCLUSIONS

health choices are connected to maternal duties and responsibilities, but they can sometimes lack clarity during this new phase of life. In future, more research should be conducted to study maternal duties and responsibilities in different contexts.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: findings highlight the skills of nurses and midwives at maternity clinics to discuss and support mothers' moral pondering during pregnancy. Although health choices in general are well recognised as a part of maternal counselling, these findings suggest a moral perspective should be incorporated into the advice that is provided.