The strategies used to gain achieving balance
can be organized into four categories:
1) adjusting to new identities, 2) adapting
lifestyles, 3) coping with the new roles, and 4) asking
feeling love and attachment with the child. They
stated that they transformed not only from adolescence
to adulthood but also pregnancy to motherhood. The
participants used the strategies of learning and adapting
the mind to be a new mother. They learned the maternal
role from their mother or mother-in-law. After the
participants obtained competency in the care-taking
tasks and expresses gratification involved in the maternal
role, they could achieve their maternal identity, for example:
I think I became a mother since I saw my child
at first time after giving birth. I nurtured him by
myself, and I was always with him at home. I
saw his development since he was born, and I
felt happy and enjoyable being with him. (P2)
To be a student during childrearing, the
participants stated that they had to adjust themselves
to get self-disciplined, and to adapt their mind to be
strong when they were studying, for example:
I had to be patient because I am a mother right
now. Before getting a child, I usually loafed
and skipped school. However, I stopped that
these days and pay more attention to study. I
couldn’t do the same as before, so I needed to
adjust myself. (P3)
Adapting lifestyles: Adapting lifestyles meant
that the adolescent mothers adjusted their way of
living to fit the new roles. The participants adjusted
their activities according to their value of motherhood.
They adjusted their lifestyles by managing time and
reorganized activities as some of them reported that
spending time with friends, such as hanging out at
night, decreased because they needed to spend the time
with their child. Moreover, most participants changed
to a new sleeping time together with the child, and
they had to wake up early to work or to study in the
morning, for example:
Previously, I slept at one or two a.m. I usually
chatted with friends on Facebook at night time,
but these days I have to sleep early together