A description of Swedish midwives’ reflections on their experience of caring for teenage girls during pregnancy and childbirth

Abstract

Objectiveto describe Swedish midwives’ reflections on their experiences of caring for teenage girls during pregnancy and childbirth. Designa hermeneutical approach was used, with focus-group discussions as the method of data collection. Settingthree focus-group discussions were conducted in a county comprising urban, suburban and rural districts in south-western Sweden. Participantsa voluntary sample of 24 midwives, aged 32–61 years, who were caring for women in different birth settings, participated in 2004. Findingstwo main themes, with three sub-themes each, were generated by the midwives: (1) the teenage mother, as ‘teenagers who are proud of becoming mothers’, ‘teenagers who are unprepared for becoming mothers’ and ‘teenagers with an immigrant background’, and (2) ‘the midwives’ wish to care for the teenage mother’, as ‘taking the teenage mother seriously’, ‘being an important person for the teenage mother’, and ‘being a help for the teenage mother’. Key conclusions and implications for practicethe findings provide some understanding of the unique characteristics of caring for teenage mothers. For the midwives, the most important aspects of caring for the teenage mother included taking the teenage mother seriously, allowing the midwife herself to become an important person for the teenage mother, and being a help to the mother. This help requires the midwife to balance the different needs of each teenage mother.