Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Open Access

Abstract

The purpose of the research was to construct a programme for prevention of unplanned pregnancies in adolescent girls through emancipated decision making. Decision making in adolescent unplanned pregnancy prevention is an important public health issue. Adolescent unplanned pregnancy, although preventable, remains common globally and is usually associated with negative health and socio-economic outcomes for the baby, adolescents themselves, the family and society. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research design was followed based on the Wittmann-Price theory of emancipated decision making in women�s health care issues. The research took place in four phases: Phase 1: A situation analysis, Phase 2: The concept analysis and the conceptual framework, Phase 3: A description of the programme as well as guidelines for the implementation of the programme, Phase 4: Evaluation of the programme, limitations and recommendations. The results indicated that adolescent girls need personal knowledge, empowerment, flexible environment, the ability to reflect and awareness of social norms to be able to make emancipated decisions in preventing unplanned pregnancies. Based on the results, an emancipatory education programme for enhancing emancipated decision making in pregnancy prevention in adolescent girls was constructed. Healthcare professionals have the responsibility to practice ethically, be guided by applicable public policies on adolescent girls� pregnancy prevention, benchmark the best practices and engage in reflective dialogue with adolescent girls and colleagues to improve the programme and practice.

Biography

M M Madumo has completed her PhD (Nursing Sciences) from the University of Limpopo Medunsa Campus in 2014. She is a senior Lecturer at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University. She specializes in Community Health Nursing Science including Reproductive Health Care. She is also involved in teaching postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Health Nursing as well as supervision of postgraduate masters students. She has published 3 articles in accredited journals and has written chapters in 3 Community Health Nursing Science books. She is serving in the School Research Ethics Committee as well as the Research Publications committee of the university.

Email: mary.madumo@smu.ac.za