Motherhood is hard”: exploring the complexities of unplanned motherhood among HIV-positive adolescents in South Africa

Abstract

For any woman, pregnancy and giving birth are major life-changing experiences. This period is argued to indicate a shift from girlhood into womanhood. However, this experience takes on new meaning when the woman is very young—an adolescent, who is still in school—and learns that she is HIV-positive. For such adolescent, becoming a mother, just like living with HIV/AIDS, involves moving from a known, current reality to an unknown, new reality. To understand how HIV-positive adolescent mothers grapple with the demands and responsibilities of unplanned motherhood while living with HIV, this study explores the complexities of their experiences in South Africa. Drawing on qualitative methods, this study examines their meaning to motherhood while meeting their personal health needs. Through in-depth interviews conducted among 10 HIV-positive adolescent mothers living in Johannesburg, this article presents an empirical study of their narratives and how they negotiate these complexities in their unplanned new realities. Emerging themes from the interview transcripts were identified, coded, and analyzed thematically following an interpretivist approach. From the interviews conducted, it is evident that HIV-positive adolescent mothers perceive unplanned motherhood as difficult and this negatively affects their future childbearing decisions. Given the importance of motherhood and adolescents globally, this article advocates for feminist policies that would facilitate larger transformative narratives. It also recommends the implementation of relevant policy that would alleviate the difficulties of HIV-positive adolescent mothers generally.