Gulfishan Haq, Nargis Soomro.
Adolescent mothers and their health related life style practice.
Pak J Surg Jan ;22(3):174-7.

Objective: To explore health related life style practices of adolescent mothers in order to develop `culturally sensitive` adolescent programmes. Design & Duration: Cross-sectional, descriptive study from Sept. 2005 to Feb. 2006. Setting: Outpatient clinic of the Dept. of Gynaecology & Obstetrics at Civil Hospital, Karachi. Subjects: Adolescent mothers who already had outcome of first pregnancy and were pregnant again or visited the clinic for some other problem. Methodology: All the women included in the study were interviewed using a semi-structured guide. The data thus collected was analyzed. Results: One hundred and twenty women were included in the study. Amongst them 82% had less than high school education, 50% were supported by the biological parents, 98% had no sex education and only 20% had knowledge of contraception. The nutritional behaviour was unsatisfactory; eating of junk food was common. Breast feeding practices were satisfactory. Most of them had some element of depression after delivery, 86% pregnancies were unplanned. About 20% had either 1st or 2nd pregnancy terminated and 10% had some element of social support. Conclusion: Problems of our adolescent mothers are different from those of the developed world. Culturally sensitive programmes should be implemented to solve their problems.

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