Experiences Of Mothers Of Children With Congenital Heart Disease

Abstract

Introduction: This article discusses the experience of mothers during the process of falling ill of their children with congenital heart disease. Method: This is a descriptive research with qualitative approach conducted with nine mothers who had their babies admitted to a pediatric cardiology unit in a reference center for treatment of congenital heart disease in the North and Northeast regions in Brazil located in Fortaleza, Ceará. Information and reports on the experience of these mothers emerging from the diagnosis process, surgery, treatment and hospitalization were collected in semi-structured individual interviews. After interviews, the testimonies of mothers were transcribed in full-length, identifying the speeches with the codes M1, M2,...M9, thereby ensuring anonymity. We used the thematic analysis technique of Minayo (2012) for treatment of information and design of the content of this article. This article is part of the research project: Breastfeeding babies with heart disease, approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Messejana Hospital, under Opinion No 1,285,784. Results: The study demonstrated that infants with congenital heart disease require specific and specialized care and that mothers undertake a long and sometimes painful journey in the search for the healing of their child. Conclusion: Based on the collected speeches, we learned that mothers also need to be assisted by professionals of the health team. They must support the mother's empowerment in the child care and strengthen the relationship of the mother-infant binomial, and help in coping and adapting to the reality in the process of falling ill and healing of their child.   Key words: Congenital heart disease. Experience of mothers