Main Article Content

The experience of biological fathers of their partners' termination of pregnancy


M Myburgh
A Gmeiner
S Van Wyk

Abstract

The purpose of this article was to explore and describe how single adult biological fathers experience the termination of pregnancy their partners had. The research design entailed a qualitative, descriptive, explorative and contextual design. Guba's model of ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research was applied. The phenomenological strategy was used to collect data from a purposive sample of respondents, consisting of nine adult biological fathers who met the sampling criteria. Three themes emerged from the analysis of respondents which were: powerlessness related to the inability to have a choice in the decision of the termination of pregnancy; emotional turmoil related to the impact of the decision on inter-personal and intra-personal relationships; and lastly psychological defence mechanisms as a way of dealing with the stressful effect of the termination of pregnancy. A literature control was done to verify the results and recontextualise it within the field of psychiatric nursing. Conclusions and recommendations were made.


Health SA Gesondheid Vol.6(1) 2001: 28-37

Journal Identifiers


eISSN: 2071-9736
print ISSN: 1025-9848