The aim of this thesis is to explore how professionals working in a French community association perceived the notion of spirituality and a shared life practice, and furthermore what contributions and limits these concepts have in the social work. To attain this, a case study has been done using participant observations and four thematically opened interviews within a L'arche community where persons with varying disabilities are living together with professional assistants. To put the association in a theoretical framework, I propose it to be regarded as a case of milieu therapy with spiritual elements, which are the two areas that will be stressed out in the section about previous research. The theories used in the study are ecological system theory, existentialism and Roger's theory about interpersonal relationships. The result of the thesis illustrate how the notion of a shared life practice has good contributions in the social work, such as equal and personal relationships between the members of the community and furthermore a notion of time that makes the work unstressful and natural as a result of the communal living. However, a limit discovered regarding this practice is the exposed and tiering situation for the assistants that hinder a longterm work in the community for most assistants. Another finding is that the spiritual dimension in the community makes way for a holistic view of everyone and contributes with rituals that create strong moments of fellowship within the community, at the same time it risks to make people who regard themselves as non-spiritual not to feel totally included.

Bakgrund: Barnmorskan ska assistera den gravida kvinnan under graviditet och förlossning genom undervisning, vägledning och uppmuntrande stöttning. Denna studie behandlar förhållande och attityder, delande av livsvärld, mellan barnmorskor och tonårsgraviditeter. Syfte med studien var att belysa barnmorskors erfarenhet av att vårda tonåringar. Metod: En kvalitativ systematisk litteraturstudie har genomförts. Åtta artiklar som belyser barnmorskors erfarenhet av att vårda och förlösa tonåringar har analyserats med kvalitativ innehållsanalys med manifest ansats. Studien resulterade i två huvudkategorier med vardera efterföljande tre subkategorier: Barnmorskans önskan att vårda den gravida tonåringen: Att ta den gravida tonåringen på allvar, att vara en viktig person för den gravida tonåringen och att ta hand om den gravida tonåringen. Barnmorskans uppfattning av den gravida tonåringen: ett nytt sammanhang, den oförberedda gravida tonåringen, den gravida tonåringen och hennes kultur. Slutsats Barnmorskors erfarenheter av att vårda tonåringar visade på en stor variation. Barnmorskor tog ”vårdandet” på allvar samtidigt som det uppstod komplexa situationer i samband med ”varandet´” tillsammans med den gravida tonåringen. Ökade kunskaper om den delade livsvärlden kan leda till att tonåringar får ett hälsofrämjande bemötande samt att barnmorskan får redskap till att vårda och förlösa den unga kvinnan på ett betydelsefullt sätt. / Background: The midwife shall assist the pregnant woman during her pregnancy and delivery, educating, guiding and encouraging her. This study treats relations and attitudes, a sharing of life-world, between midwives and pregnant teenagers.The aim of the study was to illustrate midwives’ experiences from caring for teenage mothers.Metode:Through a qualitative systematic study of eight selected scientific articles, two categories, each with three sub-categories, were established: The midwife’s desire to care for the pregnant teenager: take the pregnant teenager seriously, to be an important person to the teenager, take care of the pregnant teenager;  The midvife’s impressions of the pregnant teenager: a new context, the unprepared pregnant teenager, the pregnant teenager and her culture.Conclusions: The midwives’ experiences of caring for teenage mothers showed forth a great variation. Midwives were serious in their “caring for” while, at the same time, complex situations appeared in the “being with” the pregnant teenagers.Increased knowledge about the shared life-world can result in respectful caring for the teenage mother, as it can provide the tools for the midwife required to deliver the teenage mother’s baby in a respectful and meaningful way.