From dolls to a baby: the teenager’s life when she becomes a mother <b>[Abstract in English]</b>

Abstract

Objective: This article aims to identify the repercussions of pregnancy in a teenager’s life, because of the growing rates of teenage pregnancy.
Methodology: The study is a qualitative one with descriptive approach. An open interview was made to collect the data. The subjects were ten women who got pregnant in their teens; all of them dwell in three small cities in the Northwest region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The data were analyzed by the proposition of Minayo. Results: In the study, three categories emerged, from which two are shown in this article: the pregnancy experience in that period, with respective repercussions in their life and, the experienced feelings due to pregnancy.
Conclusions: Considering the results of the study, it was perceived that health professionals need to attempt efforts to a cultural change, where the teenager is perceived as a subject that he/she really is, not someone is in the process of becoming a subject. While the teenager is culturally and socially considered as a person who looks for an identity and is nothing, he/she can take subterfuges, as pregnancy, to be seen as a subject, but those subterfuges might contribute to make him/her an invisible and unhappy adult.
KEY WORDS: TEENAGER; PREGNANCY IN THE ADOLESCENCE; HEALTH.