INTRODUCTION

About 16 million girls aged 15 to 19 and some one (1) million girls under 15 give birth every year, most in low and middle-income countries (World Health Organization, 2014). One in ten young Filipino women aged 15-19 has begun childbearing: eight (8) percent are already mothers, and another 2 percent are pregnant with their first child. Reports said that 24.5% in high school level aged 15-24 had a live birth (Philippine Statistics Authority, 2013). In a secondary school in Davao del Norte, there were recorded three (3) student teenage mothers aged 14 to 15 in School Year (SY) 2017-2018. This study aims to answer these three research questions: 1) What are the experiences of student teenage mothers? 2) How do these teenage mothers, being students at the same time, cope with the challenges of motherhood? 3) What are the insights of student teenage mothers towards life to the peers, teachers, and academe as a whole?

The study employed qualitative-case study design to investigate the experiences of student teenage-mothers. In-depth interview (IDI) is the primary method used in this research to reveal a target range of behavior of the audience and the perceptions that drive it with reference to specific topics or issues.