ABSTRACT This abstract provides a brief summary of the research study (Nieswiadomy, 2002). The South African report on confidential enquiries into maternal deaths identified delayed and/or infrequent antenatal care as a significant avoidable factor contributing to maternal mortality in South Africa (SA) (Department of Health (DOH), 2001). There are still women in South Africa whose first antenatal care contact with the midwives obstetrical unit (MOU) is in the third trimester of their pregnancy. The aim of this study was to determine the health seeking practices amongst primigravidae at a level 1 MOU, based in a peri-urban area in Gauteng province, SA. The health seeking practice of concern was antenatal clinic attendance. The research design was qualitative, descriptive, exploratory and contextual. The research method implemented was unstructured individual in-depth interviews. The population consisted of primigravidae who were attending antenatal clinic at a level 1 MOU. The sample consisted of primigravidae who booked at the level 1 MOU’s antenatal clinic in the third trimester of their pregnancy. Maximum variety purposive sampling, with inclusion and exclusion criteria, was used and sampling continued until data were saturated. The sample size consisted of 10 participants whereby 2 of them were the pilot study and eight were the interviews that followed the pilot study. Data were collected by means of individual in-depth interviews. One question was asked: ‘What experiences influenced you to go for your first antenatal visit when you did?’ Interviews were audio taped, transcribed and analyzed by using Tesch’s eight steps of data analysis (Creswell, 1994). Lincoln and Guba’s four strategies for trustworthiness were applied and ethical considerations were implemented. The results were discussed under two themes. Those themes were: needs, and delayed booking. The recommendations were made regarding the recommendations that arose from the study, recommendations for research, nursing practice and nursing education.

O trabalho busca avaliar e verificar as influências da transgeracionalidade nas mães primigestas. A minha experiência clínica e hospitalar com gestantes pôde propiciar a percepção de como as mães da família, no caso, as avós, têm influência sobre os novos pais, principalmente sobre a nova mãe. Neste trabalho, a transgeracionalidade pode ser vista como essencial na formação da identidade materna e em toda sua carga psíquica, como costumes, ideias, valores, traumas, fardos e segredos que envolvem a gestante e que terão influências nessa identidade em constituição. As gestantes selecionadas têm as avós da criança vivas e presentes, tanto materna quanto paterna, para possibilitar a diferenciaçãoda influência que cada família exerce sobre essas gestantes. Foram realizadas entrevistas semidirigidas às gestantes, elaboradas pela pesquisadora, e aplicação de quatro pranchas do T.A.T. Posteriormente, foi feita a análise de conteúdo de cada entrevista. A partir das entrevistas, nota-se que as gestantes sofrem muita influência maternal, poisa presença, as ideias e os costumes fazem a gestante abdicar com frequência dos seus conceitos para seguir os da família, o que, muitas vezes, traz frustração à nova mãe, por não se sentir livre para exercer o seu papel materno no seu modelo ideal. Portanto, comumente é indicado que, nesse processo, a gestante busque um acompanhamento psicológico, a fim de conseguir reconhecer o seu psiquismo e diferenciá-lo do de sua família / This work aims to evaluate and verify the influences of transgenerationality in primiparous mothers. My clinical and hospital experience with pregnant women can provide insight into how mothers in the family, in this case grandparents, have influence on new parents, especially on the new mother. In this work, transgenerationality can be seen as essential in the formation of the maternal identity and in all its psychic load, such as customs, ideas, values, traumas, bundles and secrets that involve the pregnant woman and that will have influences in the construction of this identity in constitution. The pregnant women selected have the grandparents of the child alive and present, both maternal and paternal, in order to differentiate the influence that each family exerts on these pregnant women. Semi-directed interviews were conducted with the pregnant women, elaborated by the researcher, and the application of four planks of T.A.T. Subsequently, the content analysis of each interview was done. From the interviews, it is noticed that the pregnant women suffer a lot of maternal influence, and indeed the presence, the ideas and the customs make the pregnant woman frequently abdicate of its concepts to follow those of the family, which often brings frustration to the new mother, for not feeling free to play their maternal role in their ideal model. Therefore, it is usually indicated that, in this process, the pregnant woman seeks psychological support in order to be able to recognize her psyche and differentiate it from her family