Factors that influenced use of physician and nurse help were explored
for 49 mothers of healthy, term-born infants for two study periods in
the first three months. These factors were concepts pertinent to mothe
rs' internal working models of help use, their resources, perceived pr
oblem-solving competence, and clinical evaluation of maternal competen
ce in use of help. Variables contributing to the frequency with which
help was used and to the ratio of that help to other communal help sou
rces differed for nurse and physician help and for the time period. Fo
r physicians, the number of infant caretaking issues a mother identifi
ed contributed to the frequency of help use in both study periods. The
problem-solving help nurses gave emerged as a critical help in the se
cond study period. The ratio of help from nurses to that from other so
urces was higher when mothers identified reassurance from the nurse as
a critical help and, in addition, as the infant grew older, when the
nurse's evaluation of the mother's use of help was more positive. In c
ontrast, throughout the first three months, the more infant care exper
ience a mother had, the higher the proportion of help from physicians
relative to communal sources of help. The findings suggest that nurses
and physicians may have complementary functions when a mother uses he
lp.