Abstract:
This qualitative research aimed to study the role of college students life when being pregnant, stage of labor, postpartum period, and social support on coping. Fourteen undergraduate students 18-24 years of age who delivered and have a child aged lower than one-year-old at Burapha university hospital, Chonburi, and fourteen related persons who support were purposively selected. The data were collected using in-depth interviews and were analyzed using a content analysis method.
The study results found that college students who become pregnant during the first period they were sadness, disappointment, anxiety, confusion, feeling of having to endure the surroundings, and control their emotions. They have to handle their responsibility for the school and take care of themselves. At the stage of labor and the postpartum period, the lifestyle of college students has been transformed. They developed their schedule for study and childcare. Some of them have to raise their child themselves and earn a living. In their own words, the college students' mother has to be a highly responsible person. According to social support, self-encouragement, parental and husband support, peers and teacher were the strongly support concerning expenses, advice, accommodation, study management, and encouragement.
Although college pregnancy is unacceptable and brings some negative impact in many aspects such as the economic, financial, and social, especially during the first trimester of pregnancy, college mothers can learn to cope with the difficulties and adjust the new role as a mother properly. Family and surroundings people with support and understanding could help them facing those difficulties. Not only an effective fertility prevention system, but an educational institution or public health should also provide the guidelines of college pregnancy as well.