Experiences of Single Pregnant Mothers

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

doi:2008.14.1.44

Korean J Women Health Nurs > Volume 14(1); 2008 > Article

Original Article

Korean Journal of Women Health Nursing 2008;14(1):44-55.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4069/kjwhn.2008.14.1.44

Experiences of Single Pregnant Mothers

Soon Ok Yang, Shin Jeong Kim, Geum Hee Jeong

Division of Nursing, Hallym University, Gangwon-do, Korea. ghjeong@hallym.ac.kr

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.

Key Words: Single person; Pregnancy