Consulta de puericultura: motivações e desafios para a adesão de mães ao cuidado continuado.

Abstract

To understand motivations and challenges faced by mothers in adhering to continued child care in childcare consultations. Method: qualitative, descriptive, exploratory study, anchored in Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Theory of Human Development, carried out with 18 mothers of children undergoing childcare care, distributed across six Family Health Units, in a city in Curimataú Paraibano, from October to December 2023. Mothers who met the following inclusion criteria took part in the research: being a mother of children registered at the USF; be over 18 years old; express conditions of understanding regarding the interview questions; and who have attended a childcare appointment at least once within a six-month period. Those who, after scheduling, did not attend the interview after three attempts were excluded. For data collection, a semi-structured interview guide was used. The data were processed in the software Interface de R pour les Analyzes Multidimensionnelles de Textes et de Questionnaires (Iramuteq), whose textual analysis occurred using the Similitude Tree, followed by Bardin's content analysis. This research project was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Education and Health Center of the Federal University of Campina Grande, under opinion no.: 6.145.387, and CAAE: 70694023.7.0000.0154. Results: a similarity tree was obtained formed by four halos or groups of words, containing as highlighted words: “accompaniment”, “important”, “being”, “child”, “accompany” and “consultation”. Next, the thematic category was listed: Motivations and challenges for mothers to attend childcare consultations: elements and perceptions. The mothers listed the nurse as responsible for providing guidance on the importance of childcare consultations, and the child's health as the main motivation for their adherence to the consultations. However, two mothers stated that they did not understand or know what this consultation was, as well as not having received guidance about it. Furthermore, although all participants stated that they considered it important to monitor the child during the childcare consultation, two mothers reported facing difficulties when attending the Family Health Unit, such as having other children and working outside the home. Final considerations: the majority of mothers have knowledge about childcare consultations and list motivations for adhering to continued child care through childcare. The main motivation is to guarantee the child's health, through monitoring of weight, development and growth, as well as updating the vaccination schedule. However, having other children and working outside the home are elements that make it difficult to regularly attend appointments. Therefore, the need for the health team to promote actions that encourage the effective participation of mothers in childcare consultations to guarantee continued care is highlighted.