Lived Experiences of Adolescent Mothers Attending Mbale Regional Referral Hospital: A Phenomenological Study

Abstract

Background. Adolescence is a period of transition from childhood to adulthood, and is a critical stage in ones’ development. It is characterized by immense opportunities and risks. By 2016, 16% of the world’s population was of adolescents, with 82% residing in developing countries. About 12 million births were in 15–19 year olds. Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly East Africa, has high adolescent pregnancy rates, as high as 35.8% in eastern Uganda. Maternal mortality ratio (MMR) attributable to 15–19 years olds is significant with 17.1% of Uganda’s MMR 336/100.000 live births being in this age group. Whereas research is awash with contributing factors to such pregnancies, little is known about lived experiences during early motherhood. This study reports the lived experiences of adolescent mothers attending Mbale Hospital. Materials and Methods. A phenomenological study design was used in which adolescent mothers that were attending Young Child Clinic were identified from the register and simple random sampling was used to select participants. We called these mothers by way of phone numbers and asked them to come for focus group discussions that were limited to 9 mothers per group and lasting about 45 minutes–1 hour. Ethical approval was sought and informed written consent obtained from participants. At every focus group discussion, the data which had largely been taken in local languages was transcribed and translated verbatim into English. Results. The research revealed that adolescent mothers go through hard times especially with the changes of pregnancy and fear of unknown during intrapartum and immediate postpartum period and are largely treated negatively by family and other community members in addition to experiencing extreme hardships during parenting. However, these early mothers’ stress is alleviated by the joy of seeing their own babies. Conclusion. Adolescent motherhood presents a high risk group and efforts to support them during antenatal care with special adolescent ANC clinics and continuous counseling together with their household should be emphasized to optimize outcome not only during pregnancy but also thereafter. Involving these mothers in technical courses to equip them with skills that can foster self-employment and providing support to enable them pursue further education should be explored.

Developing an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data-based mobile phone app to provide adolescents with sexual reproductive health information: a human-centered design approach

“…Author details 1 Faculty of Computer Sciences, Multimedia and Telecommunication, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. 2 Consulting in Health Informatics, P.O Box 3966, Nairobi 00100, Kenya.…”

“…Adolescent pregnancies continue to negatively impact girls across the globe, with around 12 million girls aged 15 – 19 years giving birth annually in the developing world [ 1 ]. Information on sexual reproductive health [ 2 ] and contraception is lacking in majority of resource-limited settings [ 3 ].…”

The Importance of Patient-Centered Research in the Promotion of Postpartum Mental Health

“…This feeling of unpreparedness can lead to feelings of overwhelm and other negative mental health consequences ( 18 ). Additionally, when mothers are not connected with sufficient and appropriate support in the postpartum period, this can confer multiple negative side effects on mother and baby, including negative maternal emotional responses such as anxiety, stress, and loneliness ( 19 ). Maternal distress in turn is associated with impairments in maternal-infant interactions and caregiving practices ( 20 ), as well as impaired outcomes for the infant such as psychopathology and developmental issues ( 21 , 22 ).…”

Teenage first-time mothers’ perceptions about their health care needs in the immediate and early postpartum period in Uganda

“…Other studies have reported that teenagers and their babies are prone to illness due to their ill-preparedness for the challenges of motherhood, gaps in health information, and lack of support [ 10 , 11 ]. Although the barriers to accessing maternity care among this population have been studied, there are few published studies that have explored the health care needs of the first-time teenage mothers during the postpartum period and how these can be met to reduce complications during this time period [ 6 , 10 , 12 ]. The current country postpartum care guidelines [ 13 ] are silent on the special care for teenage mothers although there is a need for healthcare workers to understand and integrate the health care needs for teenage mothers in their daily practice so as to improve client satisfaction, reduce complications and possibly increase the number of teenagers delivering at the health facilities.…”