The journey towards motherhood after a very preterm birth: Mothers' experiences in hospital and after home-coming

Motherhood starts suddenly when delivering a very preterm baby. The infants spend months in hospital and mothers visit or stay close to their tiny newborns. The aim of this qualitative secondary analysis was to investigate mothers' of very preterm infants' experiences of being a mother, the meaning of staying in the hospital on a 24-hour basis and the experience of home-coming. Five mothers were interviewed repeatedly and data analyzed following Van Manen's phenomenology. The essence of the findings ‘Being on a journey’ is presented in three themes: ‘A sudden and uncertain entering to motherhood’, ‘Being on their way as preterm mothers in a hospital world’ and ‘At home at last – entering a new motherhood journey’. Each theme has a number of subthemes that substantiate the theme. The knowledge from this study hopefully will allow neonatal nurses to tactfully continue guiding mothers of very preterm infants on their motherhood journey.