Pregnancy and motherhood as a paradoxical phenomenon in adolescence: Perception of pregnant adolescents in Haiti

In Haiti, the prevalence of pregnant adolescents is still high despite joint efforts to reduce it. We are unsure as to how hesitant adolescent girls perceive their experience of pregnancy. This article aims to explore the ambivalent perceptions of pregnancy and motherhood by Haitian adolescent girls.

To conduct this study, we used a qualitative research design developed from Dewey's social survey. To collect the data, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 33 pregnant adolescents. Thematic analyses were conducted on this data entered into qualitative data analysis software (QDA miner, 6.0.5).

The study showed that adolescent girls have a paradoxical and ambivalent perception of fatness and motherhood. Three themes emerged: pregnancy as a difficult time for some adolescent girls; the perception of the positive changes associated with pregnancy; and a positive vision of the unborn child. These themes were divided into nine sub-themes and 34 codes to describe the perception of pregnant adolescents.

This study highlights the double reality of the experiential experience of pregnancy and motherhood in adolescence in Haiti, either positive or negative. Pregnancy experiences were not negative for all adolescent girls. Some young pregnant girls have shared the positive changes their pregnancy brings. All adolescent girls expressed a sense of satisfaction with the birth of the unborn child. This discovery informs practitioners and researchers concerning the need to consider the phenomenon of pregnancy adolescents from a holistic perspective.