Since 1958, phototherapy has been used as a method to cure jaundice, which is still an important disease in newborn children. Supported by a phenomenological and qualitative approach, this study aims to investigate the mothers' perception of the phototherapy treatment their children are submitted to. Research subjects were ten mothers of newborns under phototherapy treatment at the Neonatological Hospitalization Unit of a public maternity in Fortaleza-CE, Brazil. Data were collected between May and July 2002. We used group meetings with the mothers as suggested by Carl Rogers. Discourse was organized into categories according to Bardin, which revealed themes that were analyzed in view of Paterson's and Zderad's humanistic nursing theory, as follows: mothers' knowledge on phototherapy and concerns about the treatment. We concluded that the analyzed mothers' major concern is related to the babies' vision.
phototherapy; eye health; neonatal nursing