Representações maternas no contexto da maternidade na adolescência

Abstract

The investigation of maternal representations, that includes some subjective aspects of mother-infant relationship, constitutes itself a current field of study and one of the main axes of parent-infant clinic. This qualitative and transversal study, with a case study design, aims to present a research about maternal representations in the context of adolescent motherhood, grounded on psychoanalysis theory. Three adolescent mothers, ages 16 and 17, and their mothers, were recruited in a Porto Alegre’s hospital. Their babies, two girls and one boy, were three and six months old. The adolescents’ representations about themselves, their own mother and their baby were investigated through the following instruments: interview about pregnancy and birth, Interview R, observation of mother-infant in a breastfeeding situation and interview with the adolescent’s mother. Results revealed that representations about the own mother were references for the adolescents’motherhood, showing the influence of intergenerational as