Life Brought at a Tender Age: The Lived Experiences of Filipino Teenage Pregnant Women

Unintended teenage pregnancy is an ever-present issue in developing countries such as the Philippines. The impact of teenage pregnancy affects the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual well being of the adolescents. Teen pregnancies carry extra health risks to both the mother and the baby. Nurses play a crucial role in supporting young people as trusted practitioners in a range of settings. This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of the teenage pregnant women. Six adolescent female aged 12-19 years old who were pregnant with their first child agreed to participate. A qualitative inquiry, specifically Husserlian descriptive phenomenology was employed. Semi-structured in depth face-to-face interviews were undertaken, audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using Colaizzi’s method. The richness of the experiences shared by the selections provided the necessary information to understand and describe the essence of the phenomenon understudy. Cool and warm analyses captured the following emergent themes of Trends toward issues, Fortified faith, and Optimistic outlook. For the selections in this study, being pregnant at a young age did not mean that their life and future were all over. The women were optimistic about their futures. The findings of the study have vital implications in offering specific programs and services and in developing educational materials that focus on preventing teen pregnancy. While health nurse practitioners primarily provide services and education to teens and parents in various health care facilities, they also can be significant participants in prevention activities and coalitions that are based in a community. The outcomes of the study have possible contributions to the nursing practice, to policies that facilitate the promotion of the health of the teenage mothers and the prevention of teenage pregnancies, and in building future researches especially in the education of the teens about the consequences of pregnancy.