Abstract

ESCOBAR-PAUCAR, Gloria; SOSA-PALACIO, Catalina  and  BURGOS-GIL, Luz María. Social representations of pregnant mothers in an urban community: Medellín, Colombia. Salud pública Méx [online]. 2010, vol.52, n.1, pp.46-51. ISSN 0036-3634.

OBJECTIVE: To understand social representations of oral health-disease among pregnant mothers. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted for which 28 pregnant adult women were interviewed who attended a prenatal program at a health institution in the city of Medellín, Colombia between 2006 and 2007. Interviews were recorded and transcribed and analyses were performed using open, axial and selective coding. RESULTS: Mothers would like to provide their children good oral health and consider it their responsibility; associated guilt is also experienced. To fulfill this responsibility, mothers request support from health personnel, which at times does not meet their needs and expectations. CONCLUSIONS: Professionals are needed who, beginning with their education, integrate the social dimension with technical-scientific knowledge, who recognize the coexistence of different rationalities in the educational setting and put them into perspective, venturing into educational proposals that break with paradigms in order to achieve the support required, while respecting the autonomy of the mothers without blaming them.

Keywords : health education; oral health; mothers; pregnancy; qualitative research; Colombia.

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