Pregnancy and Childbirth Experience of Unmarried Teenage Mothers

Jeong, Kyung Soon

Abstract

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to describe the pregnancy and childbirth experience of unmarried teenage mothers and to provide basic information of programmes to prevent unplanned pregnancies in unmarried teenage mothers.
METHODS
The participants of study were 7 unmarried teenage mothers who lived in shelters in D city, and whose ages ranged from 15 to 19 years. Data gathering through in-depth interviews, 3 to 5 times, was done from August 2002 to September 2003. Data were analyzed with Colaizzi's(1978) phenomenological methodology.
RESULTS
The implications of pregnancy and childbirth experience for unmarried teenage mothers were "Seem to live in hell", "Desire for a miscarriage", "Lethargy", "Feel maternity", "Feel unjustified", and "Change of sexual perception".
CONCLUSION
These findings contribute to understanding the pregnancy and childbirth experience of unmarried teenage mothers and can be used as sexual education information to help unmarried teenage mothers to prevent further unplanned pregnancies.