Maternity and Meaning-Making: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Health Educational Experiences of Pregnant and Parenting Youth

Abstract

Regardless of maternal age, the transition to motherhood is acknowledged as one of the most challenging in the life cycle. This transition poses even greater challenges for young mothers that are experiencing housing instability. Grounded in the words and stories of women, the aim of this study was to elicit, explore, and interpret the experiences of a group of pregnant and parenting youth living in a residential maternity shelter and accessing community-based services. More concretely, this study explored how a group of pregnant and parenting young women came to construct their health related knowledge and views, and how these perceptions fit with their expectations and experiences. Guided by a constructivist lens and informed by a multiple instrumental case study approach, this study addressed two overarching research questions: 1) how do pregnant and parenting youth come to understand maternal health? and 2) how do the meanings they construct relate to their lived experiences and contexts? A combination of convenience and snowball sampling strategies were used to recruit 11 women, aged 17-20 and living in a temporary maternity shelter in Eastern Ontario, to participate in a series of in depth interviews. From these interviews, four central themes were recognized: 1) the influence of the living environment on learning and health, 2) the perinatal period as a time of reflection and re-envisioning, 3) pregnancy as a catalyst for change, and 4) learning resources and resourcefulness. This qualitative case study revealed that learning and meaning-making in the perinatal period are complex, contextually situated, and fundamentally influenced by environment, experience, culture, and activity. Pregnancy influenced how participants felt about themselves, their bodies, their relationships, and the choices they were presented with. The young pregnant women in this study used varied resources to shape and inform their health-related knowledge and views. While young pregnant women may be subject to similar influences and expectations in pregnancy as the general pregnant population, their health educational experiences differed due to a combination of their learning needs and preferences, the intensity and frequency of stigmatization they faced, the multifaceted transitions they were negotiating, as well as their relative lack of resources. Thus, the findings of this study illustrate the importance of understanding the experiences of young pregnant women in order to support their health and educational experiences.