Vem kan hjälpa mamma när bebisbubblan spricker?

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study was to get a better understanding of how social workers at family centres perceive psychosocial support for new mothers and how social workers can contribute to a healthy transition to parenthood. To fulfil the purpose semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with four social workers working at family centres in different municipalities in Sweden. Bowlby’s attachment theory and Meleis’ transition theory framed the study’s abductive approach to discover and comprehend the overwhelming transition to parenthood and the significance of attachment for the child’s growth and development. The study illustrated that being a first-time mother is a truly challenging life event for most women. Knowledge and understanding of the mother’s transition are especially important in the postpartum period to help the mother and to facilitate the child’s attachment. Family centres present a unique possibility to meet families in need of support in the very beginning of parenthood, which can prevent more serious problems from being established. The social workers play an important part when it comes to psychosocial support and findings suggest that social workers could be even more useful in the chain of postpartum care than they already are today. A suggested intervention would be to assign social workers at family centres as coordinators for new mothers after discharge from the hospital. Another suggestion would be to lead the way towards improved homebased support, which would benefit the new mother as well as her partner and their baby. It would also claim the importance of social workers at family centres towards other professionals and politicians.