Early parenting – portraits from the lives of first-time parents

Abstract

Objective: The study aimed to explore the experiences of first-time Maltese parents between pregnancy and the first six months in the postnatal period. Background: Parents’ interaction with their children appears to have an important and lasting effect on children’s cognitive and behavioural development. While both women and men anticipate equal involvement in child care, it is generally the woman who assumes primary responsibility when the new baby arrives. Methods: The qualitative paradigm was used to conduct the study by means of a semi-structured interview schedule. Data was collected at 28 weeks gestation, at 6 weeks postnatally and at 6 months postnatally. Twenty-six first-time parents (13 couples) participated in the study and were recruited by purposive sampling. Gender theory was used as the theoretical framework to guide this study. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used during the analysing phase. Results: Two main super-ordinate themes were revealed from this study: ‘Pregnancy as a time of preparation’ and ‘The postnatal period as a time of critical change in the lifeworld of the couple’. Conclusion: Findings showed that competent and timely support by trained professionals could equip future couples for the art of parenting and could help parents to resolve challenges before they escalate into problems. This study encourages cross-cultural research on this topic so as to shed light on differences and similarities of contemporary early parenting challenges and outcomes.