Peer Support Experienced by Mothers of Children With Congenital Heart Defects in Sweden.
Tommy Carlsson, Elisabet Mattsson
PMID 34994224WHAT IT FOUND
Mothers of Swedish children with congenital heart defects valued peer support for emotional relief and practical advice.
They struggled to find networks after diagnosis and wanted health professionals to connect them.
Key findings
01Peer support was valued, especially after a recent diagnosis, but several mothers had difficulty finding networks and suggested health professionals could help establish contacts.
02Mothers used closed online groups for intimate emotional support and larger groups mainly for updates; the national association was viewed as an information channel rather than direct peer support.
03Peers provided emotional relief and practical information about parental leave, benefits, school, and caregiving that mothers found hard to obtain on their own.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study included only 10 mothers, so it describes a narrow group rather than all families. Mothers were recruited through Facebook groups and a newsletter, and all had experience of peer support, so negative or stressful peer experiences may be missing. All respondents were mothers, and all had higher education, so fathers and parents with lower education were not represented. Interviews were by telephone, so nonverbal communication was not observed. The study was exploratory and reported experiences and suggestions, not measured clinical or psychological outcomes.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The Swedish foundation for families of children diagnosed with congenital heart defects, Hjärtebarnsfonden, funded the study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, writing, or submission.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that peer support improves parents' psychological well-being or that nurse-facilitated peer support is an effective intervention. The study reports mothers' experiences and suggestions, not measured outcomes.