Tejiendo Amor: Maternidad entre Adolescentes y sus Bebés

Abstract

Knitting love: maternity between adolescents and their babies, this is a qualitative- type research organized based on a case-study design aimed to promote the development of parental competences in women who had been through motherhood during adolescence and are in the process of restitution of their rights, aiming to propitiate the integral and diverse development of their babies; for this we identified the stories, experiences and conceptions that these adolescents had in relation to motherhood; in order to understand the affective conflicts which interfered in assuming their role as mothers and the development of parental competences through the construction of emotional bonds with their babies. In order to do so, we used life story, interview, direct observation and group discussion techniques. As a result, we found that those unresolved affective conflicts with the lack of accompaniment are the main factor that interferes in the development of parental competences and encourages the appearance of abuse behaviours as well the construction of affective bonds; furthermore, life story together with motherhood become factors which favour the sublimation processes. To conclude we found that it is necessary to recognize these adolescent mothers as women as well as mothers, in such a way that their needs can be identified and resolved differentially. Similarly, it was possible to identify that motherhood has the ability to return the sense of life to some women who have gone through adverse situations; as well of the role of affectivity, that plays a fundamental role in child development.