Background Breastfeeding has decreased all over the world. World health organisation recommends exclusive breastfeeding for six months. Even though it's the natural way of feeding the baby it has to be learnt. It´s not unusual that problems occur and supporting breastfeeding is important. In Sweden most children under the age of six are on regular check-ups at child health care centres, where they meet a pediatric nurse who is supposed to support and help the family.

The aim of the study was to explore first time mothers' personal experiences of professional breastfeeding support from the pediatric nurse and to evaluate and develop the scale "The Mother Perceived Support from Professionals" (MoPPS).

Methods A qualitative design with both inductive and deductive approaches was chosen. Nine first time mothers were interviewed about their experience of professional breastfeeding support from the pediatric nurse. Semi structured interviews were used. There after the mothers were asked to grade their experience of breastfeeding support on the MoPPS-scale and commented their answers. Qualitative content analysis were used when analysing the data, both on the inductive (interviews) and deductive (the scale) part.

Results The result reveals that the mothers felt a desire to breastfeed and they all experienced some difficulties. They wanted the pediatric nurse to give them professional support from their own experience and wanted her to be perceptive and understanding to their will. When the pediatric nurse gave time and booked extra appointments the mothers felt supported. The theme was: When having a desire to breastfeed, the mothers need to walk on a path of professional breastfeeding-support from the pediatric nurse. Three main categories were identified; Need of support, Lack of support and Received support. The result from the MoPPS-scale showed similar result as the interviews and the questions on the scale were seen as relevant to the aim. Comparing the result from the inductive and deductive analyses it was found that the mothers found it important that the pediatric nurse had enough knowledge about breastfeeding. It was also seen as important that the pediatric nurse involved the partner in the breastfeeding support.

Conclusion There might be a benefit for pediatric nurses to have good knowledge about breastfeeding to be able to support mothers in a good way. The MoPPS-scale can be used as an easy way for the pediatric nurse to evaluate a mother´s experience of breastfeeding-support.