Experiences of Single Pregnant Mothers.
- Author:
Soon Ok YANG
1
;
Shin Jeong KIM
;
Geum Hee JEONG
Author Information
1. Division of Nursing, Hallym University, Gangwon-do, Korea. ghjeong@hallym.ac.kr
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Single person;
Pregnancy
- MeSH:
Delivery of Health Care;
Humans;
Mothers;
Pregnancy;
Single Person;
Social Welfare;
Statistics as Topic;
United Nations
- From:Korean Journal of Women Health Nursing
2008;14(1):44-55
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
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.
