Building Motherhood in the Young Mothers' Group

Abstract

The primary relationship undermines how a newborn will develop. The first three years of a child's life in particular are fundamental for the development of the child's brain. This is when the “social brain” develops and grows in response to the spontaneous relationships experienced within the environment and when an individual's emotional style and emotional resources are established. The child's primary relationship, especially with the mother, provides the basis for how the circuitry for emotional processing will be shaped in the child's brain and will also determine the individual's greater or lesser capacity to enter into emotional relationships later in life. This is the essence of why it is crucial for the mother and child to be able to mutually co-create the kind of connection that will allow this. In this contribution, we will look into the fields recognised by mothers attending a young mothers' group as vital to co-creating a happy and fulfilling motherhood. The qualitative research method of content analysis was applied to disclose which areas young mothers consider to be those leading to pivotal changes during the process of their attending the young mothers' group. Mothers' answers to the question “What changed for you as a mother?” were analysed inductively by two therapist-researchers. The results brought forth five classes of components for building motherhood: view of the self (the individual level of experiencing one's own emotional stances, self-worth, self-confidence), experiencing motherhood (relationship to motherhood as a role), relationship with child (establishing a connection with the child), relationship with the partner (relationship and connection with the father of the child), and the systemic level (relationships with the family of origin, extended family and the wider environment). Further research into these categories is needed for a better understanding of some specific details and dynamics of each category. These are all categories that need to be addressed and taken into consideration in clinic and non-clinic work with young parents and their babies, especially during therapeutic or counselling work with young mothers, and also in every prevention practice with young families.