There is a need for nurse interventions aimed at minimizing parents' experiences of strain. A suggested intervention is to find a method whereby child health nurses' support would lead to parents becoming empowered in their parenthood.

No abstract

Five mothers with normal pregnancies and healthy children met regularly during the infants' first year through an e-meeting portal. The technology made it possible to meet using realtime videoconferencing through the Web, both one to one and in groups. An experienced child-health nurse was the leader of the group. The intervention data included interviews and diary notes. Personal tape-recorded narrative interviews were conducted with the mothers, one midway through the study and one at the end. Qualitative content analysis was applied to the data and two major categories were identified: feeling support through confirmation and solidarity, and the technology presents possibilities and limitations. The mothers felt that sharing experiences with others was supportive and that having new friends reduced their feeling of loneliness. The mothers discussed the technology as fun and exciting. However, they were disturbed by sound problems and the realities of caring for an infant. The opportunity to meet other mothers in the same situation via electronic encounters and to share experiences of being a mother facilitated everyday life for these mothers.

A group of fathers met regularly during their child's first year through an e-meeting portal. (This was part of a larger study which was designed to describe mothers' and fathers' experiences of an intervention to provide parental support.) The technology allowed meetings by web-based videoconferencing, both one-to-one and in groups. The leader of the electronic encounters was a man with comprehensive experience in leading parental support groups with fathers. The fathers were interviewed using a narrative approach twice, once midway through the study and once at the end. Qualitative content analysis was applied to the interview data and three categories were identified: being unfamiliar and insecure talking about fatherhood, sharing experiences and being confirmed, and being supported and limited by the electronic encounters. Most fruitful and rewarding in the meetings was the fathers sharing other fathers' experiences. It was important to talk about things they did not talk to others about. Some fathers expressed a wish for more structure in the meetings. The fathers in this study expressed a wish to meet other fathers in a support group during the whole childhood period.