Content area
Full text
Abstract: Young, homeless women often become pregnant, but little is known about how street youth experience their pregnancies. We documented 26 pregnancy outcomes among 13 homeless women (ages 18-26) and eight homeless men through interviews and participant-observation. Eight pregnancies were voluntarily terminated, three were miscarried, and fifteen were carried to term. Regardless of pregnancy outcome, street youths' narratives focused on ambivalence about parenting, traumatic childhood experiences, and current challenges. Despite significant obstacles, almost all were convinced of their personal capacity to change their lives. While most wanted to be parents, the majority lost custody of their newborns and consequently associated contact with medical and social services with punitive outcomes. Most of the youth who chose to terminate successfully sought safe medical care. We offer recommendations for changing the approach of services to take full advantage of pregnancy as a potential catalyst event for change in this highly vulnerable and underserved population.
Key words: Homeless youth, pregnancy, decision-making, services.
I chose this. It was my responsibility to be out on the street and take care of myself. I'm old enough to where I can support myself, take care of myself if I want to, and I'm choosing not to. So, it's not my parent's or anybody else's fault. It's mine if I get in trouble or I end up getting hurt somehow.
-Ashley, 18 year-old pregnant homeless woman
Homeless young women are almost five times more likely to become pregnant1 and far more likely to experience multiple pregnancies2 than housed young women. Very little is known, however, about how homeless youth experience their pregnancies or the ways in which they negotiate difficult life circumstances during the process. The little that is known about how homeless youth conceptualize pregnancy comes from Saewyc's study of the experiences of "out of home" young women (17 to 19 year old) who chose to parent.3 These women all described complicated relationships with their families of origin and with partners, encompassing violence, abandonment, love, and hope for a better future for themselves and their unborn children. Homeless men are conspicuously absent from the literature on pregnancy and parenting (with some exceptions4,5). We describe the results of a qualitative study aimed at understanding the experience of pregnancy decision-making among young homeless men...