Abstract:
Background: Pregnancy is a very vulnerable time in a woman‘s life which may be
understood as a part of a woman's transition to motherhood as ‗being with child‘, a paradox of
joy and suffering. Thus, during a period of transition when interpersonal and emotional
support as well as time for personal reflection and planning are most needed, pregnant women
who are homeless find themselves with little control over their environment, emotionally
isolated, and unsure of what interpersonal support will be available.
Objective: To explore contextual insights about lived experiencesof pregnancy among
homeless women.
Methods: Adescriptive phenomenological approachwas usedto describe the experiences of
pregnancy. The study was conducted in Hawassa town Southern Ethiopiawhereparticipants
were recruited from main road sides and around Churches.To select the participants from
these sites,mixed type of Purposive sampling(criterion and snow-ball) was used.Data was
collected using face to face in-depth interview and non-participant observation.Following
making sense out of all data by reading the data repeatedly, the breakdownof the data into
meaningful units wasdone by using ATLAS.ti computer software.Following thedevelopment
of thematic areas of the study,the entire datawere rearranged anda rich and exhaustive
description of the lived experiences waswritten.
Result: Eleven homeless women were participated from which two were currently pregnant in
their third trimester.The central theme founded in this study was pregnancy experience of
homeless women. Incident to homelessness, beyond the control circumstances, challenges of
pregnancy and hardship versus changing catalyst were the four themes‘ that are emerged in
the data.
Conclusion& Recommendation: the study confirmed thatPregnancy was an emotional
experience for homeless women that offered painful recollections of pregnancy experiences
for which they were not prepared physically, emotionally or economically. So,free access to
sexual health advice and contraception counseling should be given for homeless at times and
locations that are accessible to them.
