Background:

Becoming the mother of a second child, as a phenomenon of transition in parenting, requires a transition to new roles and responsibilities for the woman, translating into a period of vulnerability.

Objective:

To understand the meaning of the woman’s experience of becoming a mother of a second child.

Methodology:

Qualitative study, with a hermeneutic phenomenological design. Activities developed in the data analysis process took van Manen’s guidelines. Ethical assumptions were fulfilled.

Results:

The theme, the moment of birth, is manifested in the encounter between the woman and the second child, being a moment presented as “just me and him”. From this moment, an encounter(s) and/or an (dis)encounter(s) with the other, who is the second child, begins and the (new) family identity is born. Affection and emotions, but also ambivalences and (dis)encounters are intertwined in this experience.

Conclusion:

Confronting these findings and their meaning for nurses will open the horizon of their understanding of the lived experience of these women and will certainly have an impact on their way of being present in care.

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