Development Strategy of Health Security in first time Adolescent Mothers

Abstract

  This is a research and development type of research. Its purposes were to 1) study and analyze the health problems of first time adolescent mothers in Muang district, Uthai Thani province; 2) create the development strategy of health security in first time adolescent mothers 3) try out the development strategy of health security in first time adolescent mothers. The specific sampling technique was employed in choosing a sample of 25 pregnant teens (under 20 years of age) who visited Uthai Thani hospital for the pregnancy care and delivery. The research tools included 1) satisfaction assessment form of pregnancy care clients, 2) stress assessment form, 3) questionnaire regarding self-care skills, attitudes behaviors during pregnancy and after giving birth, 4) test of pre- and post- treatment learning achievement, 5) test of health security in first time adolescent mothers and 6) health security development manual based on the data collected by means of the questionnaire and learning achievement. Meanwhile, the statistical analysis was conducted using the mean, standard deviation and Pair T- test dependent.
   The results showed that:
   1. First time adolescent mothers in Muang district, Uthai Thani province suffered from the physical and mental health problems due to their unsuitability of physical conditions to carry pregnancy. This may then increase the risk of pregnancy complications and baby death if they were not provided with the appropriate advices during pregnancy. Their unplanned pregnancy also caused the mental problems e.g. the feelings of anxiety, depression and stress as well as the afraid of being rejected by the society/family. Besides, apart from the insufficient number of staffs available when they accessed to the pregnancy care, those staffs may also lack the sensibility to provide such services. With regard to the social aspect, the unavailability of strong social supports may lead to the problems of self-adaptation and of acceptance of mother’s roles.
   2. The creation of development strategy of health security in first time adolescent mothers consisted of the 3 systems: 1) pregnancy care system development, 2) enhancement of knowledge, attitudes and self-care skills during pregnancy and 3) social support development.
   3. The results according to the experimentation of strategies in 3 aspects were as follows:
    3.1 The satisfaction of first time adolescent mothers towards the pregnancy care services was assessed. It was at a high level (4.87 0.33) in the following aspects: service quality (4.83 0.37), trust in service ethics (4.90 0.29) and the personnel providing services (4.88 0.33).With regard to the stress, they had a lower level of stress (1.54 0.71) after receiving the advices during the past 6 months.
    3.2 In the overall, first time adolescent mothers who received the advices had a high level (4.37 1.35) of self-care behaviors during pregnancy and after giving birth. Meanwhile, their pre- and post-treatment learning achievements had the statistically significant difference of 0.05.
    3.3 After being advised, the development of security in first time adolescent mothers was assessed on the basis of their readiness to be mother and to adapt themselves to the mother’s roles (4.05 0.88). It was found that the belief in self-performance (4.38 1.48) and the acceptance of mother’s roles (4.01 0.55) was at very good level. In other words, the overall picture was at the highest level. Meanwhile, in the overall, the social supports from close persons and the medical personnel supports (3.75 0.93) were also at the highest level in all items.
   The development of health security in first time adolescent mothers for enhancing their child raising capability towards quality human resource comprised several elements: self-care and child raising knowledge, belief in self-performance, acceptance of mother’s roles, social supports from close persons and medical personnel supports on mental health care. Moreover, the dietary problems of first time adolescent mothers such as the disproportionate food consumption and eating of unhealthy foods may have a direct impact not only on themselves but also on their baby. Therefore, these problems should immediately be recognized and addressed in order to augment the physical, mental and social quality of pregnant women and to enhance the baby’s health conditions.