Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

“My Body Is Strong And Amazing”: Embodied Experiences Of Pregnancy And Birth Among Young Women In Foster Care, Elizabeth M. Aparicio, Svetlana Shpiegel, Claudette Grinnell-Davis, Bryn King

Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Foster youth become pregnant at 2–3 times the rate of the general U.S. adolescent population. Yet, there is a dearth of literature exploring experiences of pregnancy and birth among such young women. This phenomenological study included 18 in-depth interviews with six mothers aged 19–22 years in or transitioning from foster care. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, the specific phenomenological method used in this study, proceeded through six steps: 1. reading and re-reading; 2. initial noting; 3. developing emergent themes; 4. developing superordinate themes; 5. repeating steps 1–4 for each case; and 6. developing a set of final themes. This process yielded three …