Sexuality and Motherhood of Adolescent Mothers with Repeat Pregnancy in Uttaradit Province

Abstract

          The research entitled ‘The Sexuality and Motherhood of Adolescent Mothers with Repeat Pregnancy in Uttaradit Province’ aimed to study the sexuality of teenage mothers who were pregnant twice in 24 months and how they were shaped up by the society including families, schools/academic institutes, friends, and the media. The study covered their definition, role model, process of motherhood, social support, and impact of repeat pregnancy. This is qualitative research conducted via in-depth interview with purposive sampling among 12 teenage mothers with repeat pregnancy living in Uttaradit.
        The findings show that the teenage mothers have been socially shaped up as follow; 1. By their family: taught them to dress and behave as a girl, to study hard and come home on time, and to not misbehave. Their family had urged them not to have a boyfriend when at school age. 2. By their schools/academic institutes: it was found that their schools had taught them traditional sex education or health education of which contents were formal and not interesting. The schools were measures implemented by the school to prevent their students from having sexual intercourses and, as a result, getting pregnant Such measures included providing students complaints 3. By their friends and the media: most of the teenage mothers had friends who behaved riskily It was acceptable for them to have sexual intercourses, and they believed that it was personal for a friend to have a lover and have a sexual intercourse.. For the media, the teenage mothers were in the digital age where information can be accessed easily and quickly. They mostly research about being in love and how to behave when they have a boyfriend. About sexual intercourses, they researched the way to sexually please their boyfriend, sex positions, and contraception the use of contraceptive pills and emergency contraceptive pills, and symptoms of pregnancy.
         And for the motherhood of the teenage mothers with repeat pregnancy, they could be a good mother since the beginning of their pregnancy. They researched from the internet, took better care of themselves, their own parents and grandparents, and their husband and his family. There were impacts of repeat pregnancy on the teenage mothers physically, mentally, and socially. Physically, they could potentially have backache, hypertension, eclampsia, preterm birth, newborn jaundice, and/or low birthweight infant. Mentally and socially, teenage mothers had been under pressure of being pregnant at school age from their society, family, and relatives. And economically, they experienced inefficient earnings to support their baby.
         This study suggested that families and related organizations including academic institutions, public health organizations and social development agencies get involved in providing public knowledge and understanding of sex education including safe sexual intercourses and access to efficient contraception services to prevent potential pregnancy and repeat pregnancy in teenagers.