WOMEN, MOTHERS AND MANDALAS: GUIDE TO CREATING A SHARED SUPPORT GROUP FOR WOMEN
Health education; Gestation; Mutual aid group; Women
During pregnancy women go through a series of physical, mental and social changes that, as a consequence, can generate anxiety and fears. One way of coping with this situation is the involvement in support groups shared with women who live the same process. This study seeks, through the involvement of the own researcher, to present an illustrated guide to support the creation and development of groups of pregnant women. It is a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory research by self-ethnography as a methodology. For data collection, the field diary from October 2019 to May 2020 was used. From the researcher's experience, six emerging themes related to her life trajectory in the maternity hospital were scored, namely: "She doesn't pull, she inherits"; "My treasure"; "Where's the mother of that child"; "Maternal loneliness" e “SerTão mãe, SerTão gestante”. From the thematic analysis for the Guide’s production we concluded that the groups of pregnant women are spaces of care among the participants and that their creation must consider the culture of the place where it will be implemented and the bond between women.