Pregnancy in adolescence

the experience of young mothers

Abstract

Adolescence is the age group between 10 and 19 years, when biological, social and psychological changes occur, leading young people to want new experiences. The aim of this research was to know the most important changes that occur in the lives of adolescents after they became mothers. For this, quantitative research was conducted, through the application of a questionnaire, with six adolescent mothers, living in the municipality of Concordia, Santa Catarina. The adolescents who participated in the study were between 15 and 19 years old, with babies under two years old. All the adolescents knew contraceptive methods and only three of them used one of them before becoming pregnant. Only one of them planned the pregnancy, and all did prenatal consultations as recommended. Four of them said they did not know about the risks of teenage pregnancy. Not all had family and partner acceptance and only three of them are with the child's biological father. School dropout is common to all of them and so far, of the six respondents, only two returned to school. None of them had work before getting pregnant, and after the baby was born, one of them started work. From this finding, the need for a profound reflection on family organization, on health and education services, is confirmed. Adolescents need the support of the family, health professionals and the general population, so as not to suffer prejudice because they are young mothers and to know how to care for the baby and themselves.

Keywords: Pregnancy in Adolescence. Nursing. Health.