Mother reactions and perception of the impact of this motherhood in the life’s daughters

Abstract

Parents are the main group of reference for the majority of female adolescents that suspect or discover they are pregnant. The way in which the parents reply or react to this situation is an issue that can produce them a lot of stress. On the one hand, the female adolescents are particularly sensitive to the possibility of get sanctions, and, on the other hand, they are in a period of development in which they can expect these sanctions. In addition, most of the female adolescents who get pregnant live with their parents or mothers and these parents have spending power, emotional and physical power that can affect their daughters’ process of pregnancy. Objective: To analyze the factors associated to the reactions of pregnant adolescents’ mothers and the impact, they notice, this motherhood will have in their daughters’ lives. Material and Methods: There were studied 255 women and their adolescent pregnant daughters. It was applied a previously designed questionnaire to both of them. Variables of the mothers and daughters were chosen for this study. It was carried out an unit and bivariate analysis. It was used a STATA software. Results: one in four women knew about the pregnancy because they watched their daughters’ periods; two thirds would have preferred their daughters wouldn’t have got pregnant until they got from 20 to 22 years old; before the pregnancy, the half of mothers expected their daughter would have finished high school but one in four expected their daughter would have entered university; it called the attention the mothers’ percentage who didn’t have academic ambitions for their daughter. More than half of mothers expressed that pregnancy ruined their daughter’s future; two thirds of them think that their daughter is not prepared to be a mother at this age; therefore she must be prepared to accept her motherhood. More than half of the mothers reacted with pain and sadness, while almost a third did it with great anger, rage and violence. The violent reaction of mothers was associated with the motherly thought that the pregnancy ruined the daughter’s life, that the daughter “destroyed” her life, with the bad communication mother-daughter and with the daughter’s low education.