Open Wounds:Identifying Motherly Feelings in Underprivileged Pregnant Teenagers

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate the presence of postpartum depression triggering factors in socially underprivileged teenage expectant mothers. It was carried out with 8 pregnant teenagers from 13 to 18 years old who were sheltered at a non-profit institution. Data collection, after obtaining the informed consent form, was carried out through a semi-structured interview with 17 questions and part of the Beck depression inventory. The data revealed that 25% of the interviewees can count on the family after the delivery and the great majority (75%) have nowhere to go or nothing to go back to, depicting their deserted condition. The data matches the results of the Depression Inventory: 75% of the teenagers in this group falls in the severe to moderate category, revealing the impact of the deserted condition in their lives and its repercussion in different dimensions. Both crisis (from adolescence and psychosocial problems) experienced simultaneously along with the fragility period that comes during the first three months of puerperium make these teens more vulnerable to postpartum depression and favor the development of discourses with lack of hope, positivity or perspective, leading to reckless decisions – based more on the lack of options than on conscious choice. These teenage mothers cannot reproduce models that they were not able to internalize. It is the society’s task to create conditions to treat and repair this “gap” by offering institutions that are able to welcome them and make possible the development of corrective emotional experiences.