Warren, P. L. (2005). Journal of Advanced Nursing, 50(5), 479-488.
This descriptive, correlational study conducted in southern Ireland explored the relationship between social support and confidence in infant care in first-time mothers. There was a moderate statistically significant relationship between appraisal support and confidence in infant care and a modest statistically significant relationship between informational support and confidence in infant care. Sources of appraisal support were the fathers of the infants and the maternal grandmothers. Community health nurses (who in Ireland are also midwives) and the maternal grandmothers were important sources of informational support. In this healthcare delivery system, mothers receive frequent home visits during the first 6 weeks postpartum and throughout the first year of the infant's life. This study underscores the importance of informational support for new mothers.
It also underscores the need for paternal involvement in prenatal care, labor and birth, and the postpartum period. Fathers can provide appraisal support, which can make a difference in maternal role attainment and improve the quality of family relationships. In a meta-analysis of 27 studies, significant predictors of postpartum depression were self-esteem (ranked second), child-care stress (ranked fifth), and social support (ranked sixth) (Beck, 2001), which defines the importance of personal and professional support. The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) reminds us that "pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period are milestone events in the continuum of life [which] profoundly affect women, babies, fathers, and families and have important and long lasting effects on society" (http://www.motherfriendly.org; retrieved August 22, 2005).
Comment by Lynn Clark Callister
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