[The adolescent mother and the care of her child in the first week of life].

This study aims at understanding the experience of adolescent mothers in taking care of her child in the first week after birth by domiciliary accompaniment. Six adolescents participated, accompanied between February and October 2007. Data collection was accomplished through semi structured interviews and participant observation. Culture Care Diversity in Nursing Practice was adopted as theoretical reference. The results had disclosed that the experience of caretaking is lived deeply of diverse ways. For some of the adolescents care was developed with assurance; others were frightened and insecure and did not immediately take on. The mothers of the adolescents served as support, showing how to develop care, thus gradually inserting the daughters into practice, making them integrally assume the attention.