Abstract
BackgroundPeer support is a flexible concept used in healthcare across diverse areas to describe the activities of individuals acting in a non-professional capacity offering support to others with whom they have some experience in common. There is little research on peer supporters and women supported in the context of the transition to parenthood and disadvantage. This study particularly focuses on peer support for women experiencing a range of vulnerabilities during pregnancy and the postnatal period, in projects which assigned trained volunteers to individual pregnant women. There were three core elements to the volunteers’ support in these projects: active listening, providing information, and signposting to local services in the area. Many also offered practical support.MethodsThis was an descriptive qualitative study, informed by phenomenological social psychology, exploring experiences and perceptions of giving and receiving voluntary peer support during pregnancy and early parenthood in England, with a particular focus on disadvantaged women. Participants took part in semi-structured, audio-recorded interviews, the transcripts of which were analysed using thematic analysis.ResultsForty-seven volunteers and 42 mothers were interviewed, from nine peer support projects. The overarching themes identified were (1) ‘What is peer support?’, containing two themes: ‘befriending or mentoring’, and ‘responding to the individual’; (2) ‘Who is a peer supporter?’, containing two themes: ‘someone like me’, and ‘valuing difference’; (3) ‘The peer support relationship’, containing five themes: ‘a friend or a ‘professional friend’, ‘building relationships of trust’, ‘avoiding dependency’, ‘managing endings’, and ‘how peer supporters differ from professionals’.ConclusionA variety of models of volunteer peer support have been offered to pregnant women and new mothers in England. All create a structure for meaningful relationships of trust to occur between volunteers and vulnerable women. In the absence of agreed definitions for the nature and boundaries of peer support during pregnancy and early parenthood, it is important that projects provide clear information to referrers and service users about what they offer, without losing the valued flexibility and individuality of their service.
Highlights
Peer support is a flexible concept used in healthcare across diverse areas to describe the activities of individuals acting in a non-professional capacity offering support to others with whom they have some experience in common
This section of the paper describes the study participants and the themes that emerged from the interview data related to perceptions of peer support, reflecting the key issues across and between the different models of peer support in action
This research shows the plurality of models of volunteer pregnancy and early parenthood peer support currently operating in England, and the diversity of perceptions of the construct, with three overarching themes of ‘what is peer support?’, ‘who is a peer supporter?’, and ‘the peer support relationship’
Summary
Peer support is a flexible concept used in healthcare across diverse areas to describe the activities of individuals acting in a non-professional capacity offering support to others with whom they have some experience in common. It has been broadly used to describe the activities of people acting in a non-professional capacity to offer support to others with whom they have some experience in common They may be paid workers [1] or volunteers [2, 3]; they may be trained as part of an organised scheme [2, 3] or be other service users [4]; they may support others by visiting them [2, 3], telephoning them [5], attending a group with them [6] or connecting with them online through an internet forum [7]. The core theoretical construct underlying peer support has been described by Mead and MacNeil: “In general, peer support has been defined by the fact that people who have like experiences can better relate and can offer more authentic empathy and validation. Peer support interventions in England aiming to reduce these inequalities have included breastfeeding peer supporters who try to motivate others to breastfeed and support them in doing so [15]; ‘doulas’ who visit a mother frequently during pregnancy and up to three months after birth and support her during labour [16]; community parents who visit monthly (usually postnatally) and support mothers in setting and achieving goals for themselves [17]; and volunteers who support women experiencing perinatal anxiety and depression [18]
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