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Social/Support Services: Nurses’ prenatal behavioral objectives include: helping mothers improve diets, maintain proper exercise, monitor weight gain, and eliminate use of alcohol, cigarettes and/or drugs; teaching parents to identify signs of pregnancy complications; preparing parents for early care of the newborn; encouraging appropriate use of the health care system; and encouraging mothers to make plans regarding subsequent pregnancies, returning to school, and finding employment.
Nurses’ infancy and early childhood behavioral objectives include: improving parents’ understanding of the infant’s temperament, promoting the physical care of the child, promoting the behavioral and emotional regulation of the child, improving the safety of the home environment, helping mothers adapt to changing roles, helping women search for a job, identifying safe and reliable child care, and employing a reliable method of contraception.
Nurses’ also enhance informal support by assessing the quality of the women’s relationships with their husbands, boyfriends, mothers, friends, and other family members by asking the mother about these individuals and by observing their interactions. The nurses determine the extent to which inadequate support is due to the mothers by simply having no one to turn to versus her inability to use the support available to her.
Finally, nurses assess the mother’s linkage with formal services. Beginning with the first visit, the nurses systematically assess the extent to which the family’s basic survival needs are being met. Areas considered are income and basic shelter; food and medical care; reliable and adequate housing; and physical, mental, or substance abuse problems that are unattended.
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