Mothers with substance and alcohol abuse—support through pregnancy and early infancy

ABSTRACT

This article is about the support given to pregnant women and mothers, at an antenatal and child welfare team in Gothenburg (Sweden), specialised on working with mothers who abuse alcohol and/or other substances. The study consists of interviews with 17 women. The aim of the article is to account for how the women experienced the support they got and how they perceived the impact. The results show the importance for the staff of finding the balance between control and support and of creating a non-judgmental attitude in order to build trusting relationships with the women. The organization of the MBHV-team is a prerequisite for the staff to be able to design support based on an assessment of the mother's whole situation.

KEYWORDS:

• Health care
• maternal
• psychosocial intervention
• social support
• social work

Acknowledgments

We thank the staff at the MBHV team for their commitment, for helping us find our respondents, for sharing their time with us to participate in group discussions, and giving us continuous feedback in the design of the study. We would also like to thank all the mothers—and their children—who so generously shared their experiences.

Funding

We would like to thank The Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs (CAN), the Primary Health Care in Gothenburg and the County Council of West Sweden who financed the study.

Additional information

Funding

We would like to thank The Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs (CAN), the Primary Health Care in Gothenburg and the County Council of West Sweden who financed the study.