to examine the views and practices of first-time and experienced mothers in response to infant crying during the first 12 weeks post birth.; longitudinal, qualitative study using an interpretive, phenomenological approach.; postnatal hospital and home settings in Switzerland.; maximum variation sampling of 15 new mothers of diverse parity and educational background who had given birth to a full-term healthy neonate.; participant observations in the postnatal ward and two narrative interviews at participants' homes at 6-8 and 12-14 weeks post partum. Data analysis used interpretive approaches of case analysis, thematic analysis and exemplars.; first-time mothers showed some soothing skills from the beginning, but fine-tuned their practices of handling the crying infant and managing their own reactions. With growing experience mothers acquired a differentiated understanding of the crying's reason and urgency and used more successful soothing techniques. At the same time they learned to assess and mitigate their own stress reactions by self-soothing and adopting realistic expectations of normal infant behaviour. Experienced mothers knew the infant's frequent crying would diminish after a while whereas first-time mothers coped without this positive expectation.; with increasing child-care experience mothers' skills and attitudes towards crying changed, leading to a calmer and less escalating response to their crying infant.; inexperienced mothers need information on neonatal crying behaviour and on parents' stress response. They should be taught how to recognise and respond to the new-born's signals, and how to cope with their own stress. Postnatal care should provide novice mothers to learn from experienced role models.