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Forty-seven mothers took part in semi-structured interviews. The mothers, who had received social support through nine volunteer projects in England, faced many potentially stressful challenges besides having a baby (such as poverty, poor housing, histories of abuse, motherhood at a young age, living with physical or mental health difficulties, migration and insecure immigration status). Analysis was in two distinct stages: first, an inductive thematic analysis of mothers' experiences, and second, mapping of the results onto the theoretical frameworks chosen. Volunteers built relationships of trust with mothers and gave skilled emotional support, positive appraisal support, informational support and practical support according to mothers\u2019 individual needs, thereby assisting mothers exposed to multiple stressors with problem-focused, emotion-focused and perception-focused coping. This helped to reduce social isolation, increase effective access to services and community resources, and build mothers' confidence, self-esteem and self-efficacy. Volunteer social support may have particular salience for mothers who lack structural support and need skilled functional support.<\/jats:p>\n                  <jats:p>This article is part of the theme issue \u2018Multidisciplinary perspectives on social support and maternal\u2013child health\u2019.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1098\/rstb.2020.0023","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,3]],"date-time":"2021-05-03T01:32:27Z","timestamp":1620005547000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1098\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":15,"title":["\u2018She come like a sister to me\u2019: a qualitative study of volunteer social support for disadvantaged women in the transition to motherhood in England"],"prefix":"10.1098","volume":"376","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9289-857X","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Jenny","family":"McLeish","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"NIHR Policy Research Unit in Maternal Health and Care, National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, Old Road Campus, Old Road, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5506-3330","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Maggie","family":"Redshaw","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"NIHR Policy Research Unit in Maternal Health and Care, National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, Old Road Campus, Old Road, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"175","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"2026010105242354600_RSTB20200023C1","volume-title":"Saving lives, improving mothers' care. 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