The aim of this exploratory-descriptive study is to understand the Social Representations of adolescent mothers regarding parturition. Data were collected along the second semester of 2007 through interviews with seven primiparous and primiparae adolescents, aging between 15 and 18 years old, submitted to a maternity hospital in southern Brazil. The thematic analysis was applied to treat data, outlining two categories "expectations" and "experiences" of parturition. The expectations were dealt with dichotomously, while ones feared the pain, others felt confident. Their experiences were intertwined by a feeling of loneliness and embarrassment. Understanding the moment of parturition through the perspective of adolescents is primary so that the nurse can be able to plan and apply the proper assistance, reducing, thus, the impact of negative representations associated to parturition. This pattern of taking care demands a qualified and sensitive staff to the specificities of adolescents to provide them with a humanized parturition, through approaching unconditional ethical and humanistic principles and guaranteeing the legal rights.
Parturition; Pregnancy in adolescence; Nursing; Qualitative Research