Report Broken Link

A report of a pre-conceptual education programme in Wairarapa colleges

Abstract:

For some years staff at the Masterton Maternity Unit have expressed concern about the number of teenage pregnancies in the Wairarapa. In 1993, 9.4 per cent of all births occurred in women under 19 years of age. Often the first contact we have with a teenage client is on admission for antenatal care with Intra Uterine Growth Retardation (IUGR) or premature labour. These young women are invariably withdrawn and anxious, often smoke heavily and have a history of marijuana and alcohol consumption. Many are young Maori women. They have little idea of self-care, or choices in pregnancy, and find themselves powerless - often facing a difficult road ahead, living with parents, in unstable relationships, or alone, often beginning a cycle of deprivation and loneliness. A 1993 Coopers and Lybrand Report expressing a belief that research suggests poor birth outcomes often result from events before conception, suggested education programmes in secondary schools could be a way of preparing women and their partners to make informed lifestyle choices.

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poor birthing outcomes, pre-conception, pre-conceptual education, teenage pregnancies