A little silence is golden:

Young expectant and new parents with a history of out-of-home care encounter various forms of professional care and support during pregnancy, around childbirth, and in the early stages of parenthood. In these interactions, they continually weigh what they wish to disclose, disclose only partially, or keep private about their past. The project A Little Silence Is Golden investigates how these disclosure processes relate to their engagement with pre- and perinatal care and preventive family support services. Disclosure is not regarded as a purely individual choice, but as a relational process shaped by perceived safety and trust, professional responses and expectations, and broader organisational logics.

The study combines several complementary work packages. A scoping review maps factors that hinder or facilitate service engagement among young care-experienced mothers. In addition, semi-structured in-depth interviews are conducted with young expectant and new parents with youth care experience and with professionals working in pre- and perinatal care and preventive family support. A vignette study examines how professional interpretations and decisions may change depending on whether information about a parent’s youth care history is known. Through a mirrored analysis, parents’ perspectives and professionals’ practice logics are systematically compared to identify areas of convergence, mismatches, and underlying tensions.

The integrated findings will inform the participatory development of a practice-oriented reflection and conversation guide. This guide aims to support professionals and teams in responding to silence, reluctance, and disclosure in a relational, safe, and non-stigmatising manner, thereby contributing to disclosure-sensitive care and support