Experiences of Single Pregnant Mothers

Yang, Soon Ok; Kim, Shin Jeong; Jeong, Geum Hee

Abstract

PURPOSE: This study was done to assess the personal experiences of the coping process during pregnancy for single mothers.
METHODS
The participants were 17 single mothers who had stayed in a social welfare facility. Data was collected with an in-depth unstructured interview. Data analysis was done by the grounded theory method.
RESULTS
One-hundred twelve concepts and 49 sub-categories were confirmed in the analysis. The sub-categories were grouped into 19 categories; escape from a miserable family, wrong meeting, openness of sex, defenseless state of pregnancy, inevitable result of pregnancy, heartbreak by herself, closure, isolation, difficult situation of being alone, stigma, supporting & protecting, helplessness, seeking, empowering, feeling of loss, conflict, facing issues, assuring a fresh start and becoming-mature. "Being driven over the edge of a cliff" was the key phenomenon which the single mothers experienced during the process of pregnancy.
CONCLUSION
The above results will help nurses assessing single pregnancy mothers' needs and developing a nursing intervention program for supporting them. Therefore, nurses will be able to stop them from "being driven over the edge of cliff". A more vigorous nursing intervention is suggested for the research of the vulnerable classes of medical health care including single pregnant mothers.