Community Health Care Needs Assessment Tool for Teenage/Adolescent Pregnancy

HEALTH CARE NEEDS IN TEEN AGE PREGNANCY

Health Care Needs in Teenage Pregnancy

Introduction

It is universally agreed that pregnancy marks a time of dramatic transition in a woman 's life . The change is even more drastic when the expected mother is a teenager . For an adult woman pregnancy marks the phase of psychological and physiological transformation , viewed in positive and encouraging aspects that are associated with motherhood (Trad .1999 . However , for a teenager , the same pregnancy posits health risks , presenting a time of crisis during which teenager undergoes psychological upheaval

, and health complications magnifying the effects of pregnancy when the expectant mother is an adolescent . This article looks in two health related factors for young /teenage mothers and the ways to approach the issue from a correct medical-clinical point of view

The health risks of pregnancy

Adolescent pregnancy has attracted attention of medical as well as social and developmental activists due to the complexity of issues involved . The problem of teenage pregnancy contains two principle dimensions -health of teenage mother and health of child . According to available Statistics the teenage pregnancy rates in the U .S . are at the highest level among Western nations . An estimated 96 per 1 ,000 women between the ages of 15 and 19 become pregnant each year (Repke , 1990 From the lack of knowledge about birth control , cultural differences that place esteem on adolescent motherhood , drug and alcohol abuse and the combination of psychological factors such as teenager 's sense of impulsivity , adventure and attempts to assert independence are likely causes that result in such high rates of teenage pregnancy in US

Teenage Pregnancy : Trends and Effects

Teenage girls from many communities engage in early sexual activity leading to higher rates of adolescent pregnancy . Moreover teenagers are also the least likely age group to practice contraception , leading to increase in teenage pregnancy rates . Studies have shown that through 1980s , 45 of young girls aged between15 and 19 had sexual initiation before marriage and of them , approximately 36 became pregnant before marriage , and during their pregnancy (Davis , 1989 . It is reported that there are one million case of teenage pregnancy in USA every year , where more than half of them result in live births , around four hundred thousand end in elective abortions , and the rest end in abortion (Winter Simmons , 1990 . Of these million pregnancy a staggering 85 are unplanned , and of all the live births , 97 of teenage mothers keep their infants (Trad .1999 . Under the government health programs , teenager mothers and newborn infants are provided large scale subsidies , due to which the society bears an estimated cost of 20 billion annually (Hardy , 1988 Johnson , Lay Wilbrandt , 1988

Teenage pregnancy has debilitating effect on mental and psychological health of the young girls . The problems of adolescent mothers ' problems intensify particularly during the prenatal and antenatal periods , which are the critical period from health point of view . The problem is further aggravated by the fact that prenatal medical care is frequently delayed or even when...