Collegian
Volume 13, Issue 4 , Pages 22-26, 2006

The role of child health nurses in enhancing mothering know-how

  • Jennifer Rowe, RN, Dip Ed, BA Grad Dip Ed, MPhil PhD

      Affiliations

    • School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University, Queensland
    • Corresponding Author InformationDr Jennifer Rowe
    • ,
  • Margaret Barnes, RN, RM, BEd(Nurs), MA PhD (Faculty of Science)

      Affiliations

    • Health and Education, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland

Article Outline

Supporting early parenting and promoting family health is an important aspect of contemporary child health nursing in Australia. Recent studies suggest that within a service climate that increasingly funds targeted, population-based needs rather than universal needs, child health nurses are concerned about maintaining individual nurse-client relationships, particularly with individual families. There is however, limited evidence available to use in response to these concerns. In this paper the way a group of middle-class mothers of infants, who, in today's health service climate, may not be a target group for health services, develop their caregiving know-how, is discussed. The findings presented suggest that both expert and lay knowledge have a part to play in supporting women in their early mothering. Women such as these, in essence, need a clearing-house to help them sift through the overwhelming information they access, respond to, and turn into everyday practices that work. Well placed child health nursing services may achieve this. While there is significant support for this claim in the literature, mechanisms for effective support remains the challenge. A key may be found in nurses focusing on the promotion of communicative or interactive health literacy as an outcome of their programs.

Key words:  child health nursing , mothering , infant health , health literacy

No full text is available. To read the body of this article, please view the PDF online.

 

Back to Article Outline

References 

  1. Bailey L . Refracted selves? A study of changes in self-identity in the transition to motherhood . Sociology . 1999;33(2):335–352
  2. Barclay L , Everitt L , Rogan F , Shmied V , Wylie A . Becoming a mother – an analysis of women's experience of early motherhood . Journal of Advanced Nursing . 1997;25(4):719–728
  3. Barnes M , Courtney M , Pratt J , Walsh A . Contemporary child health nursing practice: services provided and challenges faced in metropolitan and outer Brisbane areas . Collegian . 2003;10(4):14–19
  4. Barnes M , Courtney M , Pratt J , Walsh A . The roles, responsibilities and professional development needs of child health nurses . Focus on Health Professional Education . 2004;6(1):52–63
  5. Bauman Z . Life in Fragments. Essays in postmodern morality . Oxford: Blackwell; 1995;
  6. Bergum V . A child on her mind. The experience of becoming a mother . Connecticut: Bergin & Garvey; 1997;
  7. Birk D . Postpartum education: teaching priorities for the primapara . The Journal of Perinatal Education . 1996;5(2):7–12
  8. Britton C . The influence of antenatal information on breastfeeding experiences . British Journal of Midwifery . 1998;6(5):312–315
  9. Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services  . The health of young Australians. A national health policy for children and young people . Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service; 1995;
  10. Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services  . The national health plan for young Australians . Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service; 1997;
  11. Coveney J , Miller M . Infant feeding advice given by child health and community health nurses in Western Australia . Australian Journal of Nutrition and Dietetics . 1991;48(1):18–24
  12. Fagerskiold AM , Ek AC . Expectations of the child health nurse in Sweden: two perspectives . International Nursing Review . 2003;50:119–128
  13. Fagerskiold AM , Wahlberg V , Ek AC . Maternal expectations of the child health nurse . Nursing and Health Sciences . 2001;3:139–147
  14. Giddens A . Modernity and self identity . Cambridge: Polity Press; 1991;
  15. Hardyment C . Dream babies . London: Jonathan Cape; 1983;
  16. Hays S . The cultural contradictions of motherhood . New Haven: Yale University Press; 1996;
  17. Hays S . The ideology of intensive mothering: A cultural analysis of the bestselling “Gurus” of appropriate childrearing . In:  Long E editors. From sociology to cultural studies. New perspectives . Massachusetts: Blackwell; 1997;
  18. Jansson A , Peterson K , Uden G . Nurses' first encounters with parents of new-born children – public health nurses' view of a good meeting . Journal of Clinical Nursing . 2001;10:140–151
  19. Maloni J . The content and sources of maternal knowledge about the infant . Maternal-Child Nursing Journal . 1994;22(4):111–120
  20. Marshall H . The social construction of motherhood: an analysis of childcare and parenting manuals . In:  Phoenix A ,  Woollett A ,  Lloyd E editor. Motherhood. meanings, practices and ideologies . London: Sage; 1991;
  21. Moran CF , Holt V , Martin D . What do women want to know after childbirth? . Birth . 1997;24(1):27–34
  22. Nolan M . Antenatal education – where next? . Journal of Advanced Nursing . 1997;25:1198–1204
  23. Nolan M . Antenatal education: failing to educate for parenthood . British Journal of Midwifery . 1997;5(1):21–27
  24. Nutbeam D . Health literacy as a public health goal: a challenge for contemporary health education and communication strategies into the 21st century . Health Promotion International . 2000;15(3):259–267
  25. Pridham K . Mothers' help seeking as care initiated in a social context . Image: Journal of Nursing Scholarship . 1997;29(1):65–70
  26. Queensland Health Child and Youth Health Unit  . A strategic policy framework for children's and young people's health 2002-2007 . Brisbane: Queensland Health; 2002;
  27. Renkert S , Nutbeam D . Opportunities to improve maternal health literacy through antenatal education: an exploratory study . Health Promotion International . 2001;16(4):381–388
  28. Reutter L , Ford J . Perceptions of changes in public health nursing practice: a Canadian perspective . International Journal of Nursing Studies . 1998;35(1):42–53
  29. Rogan F , Shmied V , Barclay L , Everitt L , Wylie A . ‘Becoming a mother' – developing a new theory of early motherhood . Journal of Advanced Nursing . 1997;25(5):877–885
  30. Rowe J 2000 Organising bodies: a study of feeding and sleep in infancy. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Queensland, Brisbane.
  31. Rowe J . A room of their own. The social landscape of infant sleep . Nursing Inquiry . 2003;10(3):184–192
  32. Rowe J , Barnes M . Supervised mothering and the role of information giving. Advice regarding introduction of solids . Birth Issues . 1996;5(2):11–13
  33. Schneider Z . An Australian study of women's experiences of their first pregnancy . Midwifery . 2002;18(3):238–249
  34. Scott D , Brady S , Glynn P . New mother groups as a social network intervention: consumer and maternal and child health nurse perspectives . Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing . 2001;18(4):23–29
  35. Whelan A , Lupton P . Promoting successful breast feeding among women with a low income . Midwifery . 1998;14:94–100
  36. World Health Organisation  . Health promotion glossary . Geneva: World Health Organisation; 1998;

PII: S1322-7696(08)60536-3

doi:10.1016/S1322-7696(08)60536-3

Collegian
Volume 13, Issue 4 , Pages 22-26, 2006

Article Tools