Research emphasises the importance of the mother-infant relationship for infants’ well-being. To benefit interventions, the current research, using a critical realist lens, investigates an area that research has neglected, which is the subjective experience of the mother-infant relationship, including experiences of moments of connection. Bourdieu’s ‘thinking tools’ enables exploration of mechanisms that may affect the mother-infant relationship. How the study’s results can inform health visiting practice is considered.
Six mothers were interviewed, four of whom participated in a video of their mother-infant interaction. Two focus groups, each with six health visitors, discussed their practice in the context of supporting the mother-infant relationship. Interpretative phenomenological analysis and thematic analysis were employed.
This research indicated a high arousal state, referred to as Vigilantia, was experienced by mothers and infants. Vigilantia appeared to support mothers’ drive to make sense of their young infants but also seemed associated with mothers’ reliance on a discourse of the ‘traditional baby’, which stressed instrumental care and omitted the relational infant. The mothers found it difficult to make sense of the “bizarre” relational connection they felt for their infants. Health visitors described obstacles to supporting the mother-infant relationship associated with their service’s design and their role. Health visitors also seemed to identify with some mothers and in doing so could overlook the infants.
Neoliberal values discount the relational and these values affect the experience of the mother-infant relationship. Ideas for improving practice are suggested, as well as acknowledgment of the need for social structural changes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/19903 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Milne, Elizabeth J.M. |
| Contributors | Not named |
| Publisher | University of Bradford, Faculty of Health Studies |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, doctoral, PhD |
| Rights | <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. |
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