Maternal experiences with autism and its implications to nursing care
International Journal of Development Research
Maternal experiences with autism and its implications to nursing care
Received 20th January, 2019; Received in revised form 14th February, 2019; Accepted 19th March, 2019; Published online 30th April, 2019
Copyright © 2019, Luiza Alves dos Santos et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Descriptive and qualitative study that aimed to describe the experiences of mothers with autism and its implications for nursing care. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 09 mothers of children with autism from March to May 2016, at the Child and Youth Psychosocial Care Center of Iguatu, Ceará. The data were analyzed in light of the technique of the discourse of the collective subject. The results showed that adapting to autism is a tiresome and difficult, and sometimes painful task. For many mothers to have an autistic child means renouncingtheir professional and social life. Support, guidance, counseling through child support institutions and therapeutic services appear as important options in autistic care, but mothers also need support and care, and nursing can assist in this process through evaluation and of communication, to assist the core child, mother and family.