Gardener's Flower: Lived Experiences of Parents with Adolescent Pregnant Daughters

Abstract

The parents are the primary mover and key to unravel the increasing cases of adolescent pregnancy. For the lack of consensus for this vulnerable group, they face a substantially higher risk of dying and depression. Bequeath it as a major contributory factor to maternal and child mortality. Conversely, despite this phenomena and the limited studies concerning this pressing issues, this study aims to explore and describe the lived experiences of the parents in dealing with adolescent pregnant daughters. The qualitative descriptive phenomenology was utilized. The participants were chosen by purposive sampling. Data gathering procedures comprised of field notes, observations, literature analysis, and an unstructured interview guide. The key question was, “What are your experiences in having an adolescent pregnant daughter?” Individual interviews were conducted until data saturation was reached, and there were 10 participants gathered from the period of February up to March. The Colaizzi’s Method of Interpretation for data analysis was applied. As the result of this study, three essential themes emerged based on the findings of the data. These were “Gardener’s Load”,” Stuck in the Mud” and “Replanting Flower”. Theme I explored the parent's burden, such as ego and love, fear and anger, confusion and emotional shock towards the present condition of their pregnant daughter. This situation highlighted that life was a continuing quest of conflict and resolving to generate meaningful experiences. Love and ego played an important aspect in maintaining a healthy relationship. The balance of these two was significant to cope up with the constant conflict and challenges of life. Theme II examined the parent’s emotions associated with unmet goals and future concerns in relationships with less successful children. Mothers may respond emotionally to career and relationship success, whereas fathers may emotionally respond primarily to their child’s career success. Theme III explored the parents’ role in their child lives. Some examples were caregiver, protector, teacher, disciplinarian, and nurturer. This study implicates its availability to the different agencies, institutions, midwifery and nursing profession, and especially to the wellness of the community. Moreover, it can highly contribute to the regional campaign on Health and Wellness for 2020 to construct future policy for parenting guidance to create awareness.