This article is Part III in a series of articles (see part I and II) wherein I explore teenage pregnancy and young motherhood in the context of HIV, specifically the ways in which young mothers interact with their families beyond pregnancy and into young motherhood. The experiences I describe herein are based on my ethnographic fieldwork with teenagers and young mothers living in one of South Africa’s townships. I will call this area, Place of Refuge. This research was carried out with permissions and ethical approvals from the University of Oxford, University of the Free State, and the Free State Department of Health. All names have been anonymised to protect the identity of teenagers and their families.
This article follows my earlier pieces in Synapsis that have explored the mother-child relationships between young mothers and their babies. Here, I shed some light on familial relationships that surround young mothers, as they think about or work toward returning to school. How do families support teenage mothers, when and why, if at all?
Sometimes, a teenager’s mother must stop working so she can take care of a new baby at home. This was the case for Sibongile. She is sixteen years old and HIV-negative. Sibongile lives with her mother, step-father, and two siblings in a one-bedroom shelter. When Sibongile’s baby was born, Sibongile’s mother stopped working. This was a huge decision for Sibongile’s family. Almost three in every four people are unemployed in Place of Refuge. In this social and economic climate, it seems that sacrificing a job is a deeply meaningful response to teenage motherhood. This is how Sibongile made sense of her mother’s sacrifice:
…my mother will leave work, and take care of the baby. There is no one else. So, my mother will stop her work. My step-father still works. They have talked about it. They decided. (Sibongile 2019)
Sibongile’s mother worked as a cleaner in a government building. Sibongile was not included in the discussion about her mother’s employment. Sibongile’s mother and step-father made this decision. This was a necessary sacrifice so that the teenager could return to school. Yet this sacrifice is not only a hallmark of care and support for the teenager, and her baby. I argue that this sacrifice is also a means to a better end for Sibongile, and her family.
Sibongile aspires to be a medical doctor. She told me that she needed to finish high school before applying to medical school. Sibongile’s mother also desires that her daughter will become a doctor. Sibongile’s career ambitions, and her mother’s hopes, are rolled into one. Her education is worth the family’s sacrifice. Sibongile said:
My mother is very happy that I will be a doctor. My boyfriend will be one too. We will attend medical school together. … My mother will help me, and take care of the baby. (Sibongile 2019)
Sibongile’s future career is a rising tide that can lift her family. Just the possibility of having a qualified professional in the family is worth sacrificing her mother’s employment. This sacrifice is for the good of the group (her family and her baby) and the individual (Sibongile). Even if she wanted to, Sibongile could not change her mind about applying to medical school. Becoming a doctor is the best (and perhaps only) way she can repay her family for their sacrifice.
In some ways, when her mother stopped working, this was an investment in Sibongile’s future, not just a requirement for it.
The welfare grant that Sibongile will claim for her baby will partly make up for the wages her mother has sacrificed. In South Africa, teenage mothers are eligible to receive a “child support grant” from the government to offset at least some financial strain (Panday et al., 2009; Hodes, Toska & Gittings, 2016; Vale, Hodes, Cluver & Thabeng, 2017). A child support grant brings ZAR 400.00 into a household each month. This converts to approximately GBP 17.00 or USD 21.00. In many cases, this grant is a teenage mother’s only income. She and her baby must survive on this money, and any funds that her parents can spare. After the baby was born, the family would have to learn to survive on less.
Grant income is essential for Sibongile’s family. Five people – Sibongile, her mother, her step-father, and two younger siblings – live in a one-bedroom shelter. Her family is one of the poorest I encountered during my extended fieldwork in Place of Refuge. Sibongile told me that her family relied on her welfare grant and her step-father’s weekly wages.
For Sibongile and her family, it was important that Sibongile’s mother sacrifice employment in order to prepare for Sibongile’s future (the family’s future). In many ways, this was also a practical decision. How else could Sibongile finish high school? For some teenagers, like Sibongile, familial care is (at least partly) born out of necessity. Sibongile’s mother needed to step in – take care of and parent the new baby – so Sibongile could return to school.
In some ways, Sibongile and her mother were trying to make the best of their situation. Sibongile’s mother did not only help with childcare. She also helped to negotiate school attendance. During her pregnancy, Sibongile and her mother met with the school’s principal. They agreed that Sibongile could attend school, during her pregnancy, and take time off for the baby’s birth. She was scheduled to have a cesarean delivery with no epidural medications, like most teenagers do in Botshabelo. She planned to miss ten days of school for this. As per these plans, Sibongile attended school throughout her pregnancy. Even when it was challenging to walk on swollen ankles, she was still going to class every day. When it was time, she took ten days off school for the delivery, as planned. Sibongile gave birth to a beautiful baby boy in June 2019. By the time I saw her in August, she had been back at school for a while. Her mother had resigned from her job in Bloemfontein in order to take care of the new baby at home.
Sibongile’s impressive ‘back-to-school’ attitude in and of itself was not enough to actualise these ambitious plans. As discussed, she also needed strong support from her family – especially from her mother who helped Sibongile “make arrangements” to attend school during and after pregnancy (Sibongile 2019) and agreed to look after the baby at home so Sibongile could finish school. Sibongile said:
This baby is a mistake. I want to be a doctor. My mom will help me… I am strong enough. I can go back to school. (Sibongile 2019)
After the baby was born, Sibongile spent most of her time at school, or studying at home. Her mother took care of the baby. I knew this was true when I saw Sibongile with her newborn during our final meeting at Hlano clinic. Sibongile was awkward and clumsy around the baby as if she was unaccustomed to holding him. When the baby regurgitated milk, Sibongile almost dropped the child in her haste to get a towel. This happened more than once. It seemed as though that was the first time Sibongile was alone with the child.
Kananelo, who is HIV-negative, is another adolescent mother living in Place of Refuge. Like Sibongile, Kananelo values education. She lives with her grandparents; both her parents have passed away and she is an orphan. Kananelo is mischievous, and playful. In our conversations, she often made jokes or told me funny stories about her family. I found it deeply meaningful that she is planning a future for herself and her baby. She believes that completing her education – and pursuing architecture – is one way to take care of her baby. During one of our afternoons together, Kananelo showed me her architectural sketch for a shopping mall. She explained:
I want to be an architect. I will go back to school so I can provide for my son. I want to give him everything. I want to take care of him. (Kananelo 2019)
Kananelo practices her design skills even though she is not in the classroom. She tells me that when it is eventually possible for her to return to school, she will be ready. Kananelo must wait until her child starts school. In the meantime, she must take care of her baby at home.
Rachel Bray and colleagues (2010) have explored what it might mean when young people talk about becoming doctors and architects. Their mixed-methods work is based in South Africa’s Western Cape. Young people’s aspirations are voiced in a context of poverty and poor education outcomes. The scholars considered how young people actualise these aspirations across three dramatically different social worlds: Masiphumelele, Fish Hoek, and Ocean View. That is, the way young people idealistically ‘dream’ or realistically ‘plan’ for their careers as doctors, lawyers, and architects:
…the expression of ambitious aspirations is reflective of, and responsive to, certain discourses that frame education and the transition to adulthood, and that personal expectations may not cohere with these discourses and, indeed, may be masked by them. (Bray et al., 2010:220)
Young people in the wealthier Fish Hoek community had tangible ways and means to get to university. They emulated professionals or role models in their social networks. By comparison, students in the poorer Masiphumelele and Ocean View communities did not always know ‘how’ to actualise their aspirations. Many individuals talked about only “studying hard” as a means to “become someone” (Bray et al., 2020:220). This literature echoes some girls’ experiences in Place of Refuge.
I found that, while some teenage girls can only ‘dream,’ other teenagers can ‘dream’ and ‘plan’.
Kananelo, for example, aspires to be an architect, unlike anyone else in her family or community. She has few, if any, people in her network that work in architecture or design. Practicing her design skills is a way for her to ‘dream’. By comparison, Sibongile ‘dreams’ of being a doctor, and she ‘plans’ to do this by finishing high school. One of her family members is a doctor. That is, Sibongile has a role model in her network.
Both Sibongile and Kananelo included their families in renewed education (and career) plans post teenage pregnancy. Yes, they would be teenage mothers. However, in many ways, their families would help them keep these identities hidden. In the meantime, these (newly) young mothers would have space to dream, if not the practical ability to pursue these dreams, in large part due to family support. In these ways, a teenager’s relationship with her own mother has the power to dictate the kind of relationship she will have with her newborn, that is, the mother-child relationship between a young mother and her baby. It seems the way some girls protect, love, and connect with their babies is a testament to what Elisabeth Badinter (1981) has called ‘good mothering’ – which is often in play generationally and simultaneously.
Works Cited
Arensen, J. (1994). Strengths and self-perceptions of parenting in adolescent mothers. Journal of
Pediatric Nursing, 9(4), 251-257.
Badinter, E. (1981). Mother love: Myth and reality, motherhood in modern history. United States
Bray, R., Gooskens, I., Kahn, L., Moses, S., & Seekings, J. (2010). Growing up in the new South Africa: Childhood and adolescence in post-apartheid Cape Town. Cape Town, South Africa: HSRC Press.
Chohan, Z., & Langa, M. (2011). Teenage mothers talk about their experience of teenage motherhood. Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, 25(3), 87-95.
Clemmens, D. (2003). Adolescent motherhood: A meta-synthesis of qualitative studies. MCN, the American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing, 28(2), 93-99. doi:10.1097/00005721-200303000-00010
Dubb, A. (1974). The impact of the city. In Hammond-Tooke (Ed.), The bantu-speaking peoples of Southern Africa . London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Jewkes, R., Morrell, R., & Christofides, N. (2009). Empowering teenagers to prevent pregnancy: Lessons from South Africa. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 11, 675-688.
Josephine, A. M. (2019). “Motherhood is hard”: Exploring the complexities of unplanned motherhood among HIV-positive adolescents in South Africa. Sage, 9(2).
Kaufman, C. E., de Wet, T., & Stadler, J. (2001). Adolescent pregnancy and parenthood in South Africa. Studies in Family Planning, 32(2), 147-160. doi:10.1111/j.1728-4465.2001.00147.x
Marwick, M. (1978). Household composition and marriage in a witwatersrand African township. In W. J. Argyle, & E. M. Preston-Whyte (Eds.), Social system and tradition in Southern Africa. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
Mkhwanazi, N. (2010). Understanding teenage pregnancy in a post-apartheid South African township. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 12(4), 347-358. doi:10.1080/13691050903491779
Mkhwanazi, N. (2014b). Revisiting the dynamics of early childbearing in South African townships. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 16(9), 1084-1096. doi:10.1080/13691058.2014.930512
Morrell, R., Bhana, D., & Shefer, T. (2012). Books and babies: Pregnancy and young parents in schools. Cape Town, South Africa: HSRC Press.
Ngabaza, S. (2011). Positively pregnant: Teenage women’s experiences of negotiating pregnancy with their families. Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, 25(3), 42-51.
Nkani, F. (2012). An ethnographic study of teenage pregnancy: Femininities and motherhood among pregnant teenagers and teenage mothers at school in Inanda
Ngwane, Z. 2003. ‘“Christmastime” and the struggles for the household in the countryside: Rethinking the cultural geography of migrant labour in South Africa’. Journal of Southern African Studies, 29 (3): 681–99.
Pauw, B. (1963). The second generation: A study of the family among urbanized bantu in east london. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
Preston-Whyte, E., Zondi, M., Mavundla, G., & Gumede, H. (1990). Teenage pregnancy, whose problem? realities and prospects for action in KwaZulu/natal. Southern African Journal of Demography = Suidelike Afrikaanse Tydskrif Vir Demografie, 3, 11. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12317578
Preston-Whyte, E. (1993). Women who are not married: Fertility, ‘illegitimacy’, and the nature of households and domestic groups among single African women in Durban. South African Journal of Sociology, 24(3), 63-71. doi:10.1080/02580144.1993.10432905
Ross, F. (2009). Raw life, new hope: Decency, housing and everyday life in a post-apartheid community. Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press.
SmithBattle, L. (1995). Teenage mothers’ narratives of self: An examination of risking the future. Advances in Nursing Science, 17(4), 22-36.
SmithBattle, L. (1996). Intergenerational ethics of caring for adolescent mothers and their children. Family Relations, 45, 56-64.
SmithBattle, L. (1998). Adolescent mothers four years later: Narratives of the self and visions for the future. Advances in Nursing Science, 20(3), 36-49.
Varga, C. (1998). Health care utilization, nutrition, and pregnancy outcome among adolescent primigravidas in KwaZulu/natal, South Africa: A rural/urban perspective Available from Dissertations & Theses Europe Full Text: Science & Technology. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/304449281
Zabin, L. S. (1993). More thoughts on the adolescent pregnancy ‘problem’. Family Planning Perspectives, 26(3), 132-136.
Header Image: Swaddled baby by Heather Spears, 1999. Wellcome Collection. https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ey57sk5b/images?id=m24wvqr7