Who Are the Immigrant Mothers in Portugal?

Introduction: Cultural differences justify knowing who immigrant mothers are, what they do and how they live.

Objective: To characterise immigrant mothers in Portugal.

Methods: This is a quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional study. The sample is composed of 499 immigrant mothers. The data collection protocol consists of a questionnaire that allows for the characterisation of immigrant mothers. Data collection was carried out on the second day after delivery.

 

Results: The results revealed that 33.1% of immigrant mothers are between the ages of 26 and 30, 31.1% are single, 35.4% have between 10 and 12 years of schooling, 10.7% are illegal immigrants, 47.2% have been in Portugal for less than a year, 61.3% have no job qualifications, 50% are unemployed, and 28.4% mention having difficulty in finding employment, 25.2% earn between 501 and 1000 euro, 54.8% have an income inferior to 500 euro, 59.9% are catholic, 40.1% are of a different religion, 67.9% based their choice of maternity ward on it being close to home, 86.9% live in an urban area, 43.5% live with 4 or more people, 45.1% live in a 3 bedroom home, 64.6% live in rented homes, 97.7%, live in a home with sanitation, 100% have a bathroom and electricity, 99.8% have piped water and 64.4% have internet access at home.

As for their partners, 40.9% are 34 years old or younger, 67.3% are foreigners, 34.8% have between 10 and 12 years of schooling, they so unskilled work and 24.9% are administrative/workers/craftsmen and 53.1% have no job qualifications. Approximately 9 in 10 are employed.

 

Conclusion: Know who they are and how they live, health care professionals are better able to respond to the needs as well as improve the obstetric and perinatal indicators.

Key-words: Immigration, Mother, Multiculturalism