The good, the bad, and the ambivalent: Quality of alliance in a support program for young mothers

The relationship that develops between early childhood service providers and parents is seen as a critical component in program implementation, although little is known about how service providers and parents view this relationship. The current qualitative study examines the helping relationship between doulas and 12 African American adolescent mothers who participated in a larger study of prenatal and postnatal support. Mothers and their doulas were interviewed separately at the beginning and the end of program participation about the quality of the helping relationship and how they spent their time together. Content analysis revealed positive, negative, and ambivalent themes in mothers' and doulas' descriptions of their relationships, although the majority of the relationships were considered positive. For the most part, doulas and mothers agreed on the quality of the relationship that they formed with each other. Mothers were more likely to note the enjoyable aspects of spending time with their doula while doulas focused more on issues of trust and acceptance. The young mothers and doulas often considered amount of contact and availability (or lack thereof) as a sign of the quality of the relationship. Results are discussed in terms of the professional role of the doula and cultural influences in help-giving behavior.