South African community health workers’ perspectives of mother–infant bonding

Abstract

ABSTRACT In South Africa, the mother-infant relationship is often conceptualized using international frameworks. Yet, contextual knowledge of mother-infant bonding is essential, as a strong mother–infant bond enhances a mother’s capacity to care for her infant, and is associated with many positive child development outcomes. Community health workers work intimately with South Africa’s mothers and infants, and are a valuable source of insight into local experiences. This study explored South African community health workers’ perspectives of mother–infant bonding. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 community health workers. A thematic analysis of the interviews suggests that the community health workers perceive mother–infant bonding as a central component of early development. Bonding was seen to improve mothers’ care capacity, especially in poverty-stricken contexts. The benefits of bonding were characterized as being far-reaching, from pregnancy to adulthood. The community health workers described effective approaches to bonding as being simple, intuitive, and free.