Health Promotion for Women before Pregnancy: Promoting Reproduction Planning

This paper discusses the benefits of reproductive planning, right birth spacing, and the risks of conceiving at an advanced age. It also highlights the importance of pre-pregnancy care for young women and girls to improve their reproductive health.

Health Promotion for Women before Pregnancy: Promoting reproduction planning
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Introduction
According to a report by UNICEF (2011) the reproductive health of women is very
critical in determining the future of humanity. Young girls and women should be equipped with
necessary knowledge which will help them deal with motherhood responsibility effectively
(Huang, Sauve, Birkett, Fergusson, & van Walraven, 2008). Pre pregnancy care includes all
efforts and programs undertaken to protect the health of all females who are mature enough to
get pregnancy with an intention of raising their health levels and those of young ones.
Sexual harassment and some cultural beliefs threaten the reproductive health of young
women. It is so unfortunate that some communities in some parts of the world are still practicing
female genital mutilation. Statistics from different health bodies shows that rape cases have
increased significantly in the low and medium income countries in the recent years. Some
women including those who are married are coerced into sexual activity. It has also been
observed that some adolescent engage themselves in unprotected sex. All this incidences and
activities may leads to contracting of diseases and early pregnancies (Frey, Navarro, Kotelchuck,
& Lu, 2008). Pregnancies shut the educational future of young girls and also expose them to the
risk of early marriages. World Health Organization report on adolescent pregnancy indicates that
about a third of girls in the low income countries are married while still minors.
Reproductive planning is seen as solution to reproductive health challenges that many
young women and girl undergo. It forms part of the pre pregnancy care given to young women
and girls. Statistic indicates that reproductive planning can help cub unwanted pregnancies,
abortion infant death rate among others (Kenny, et al, 2014). Results of a systematic review
carried out to bring together the evidence for risks and interventions relating adolescent health
and reproductive planning during pre pregnancy period are presented in this paper. This paper
will discuss the benefits accrued from right birth spacing, and the risks of conceiving at an
advanced.
Methods
Literatures published prior to 2011 were reviewed systematically to look for journal
illustrating the effectiveness of pre pregnancy interventions and risks for adolescent health and
reproductive planning on maternal newborn and child outcome (Molitoris, 2018). Searches with
no restriction were also conducted in several electronic databases, that is, PubMed, Embase, and
WHO Regional Database. Cochrane criteria were used to check for quality of the experimental
studies while STROBE helped in checking the quality of observational studies. The software
Review Manager helped in analyzing all the data collected.
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Results
The search produced 1097 results. After several screening was done, one hundred and
sixty eight studies qualified to be used for abstraction and analysis. Findings of the review are
discussed in the subsequent sections below.
Boosting adolescent health
Adolescents form part of the future generation (Wang, & Hong, 2015). At their tender
age, many physiological processes take place in their reproductive system. They begin to
understand themselves. At this time, proper advice and guidance will help in maintaining their
health.
Preventing first and repeat pregnancy in adolescent
Several studies conducted indicate that efforts aimed at counseling and provision of
contraceptives’ to the teenage have a little impact at preventing pregnancy. However
Comprehensive programs like giving holiday support, sex education, sports activities and others
cut the risks by nearly half. Guidance on parental care is seen to be helpful to those adolescents
who already have children.
Birth spacing
According to studies conducted, both short and long birth intervals have negative effects
to the health of women. A further study indicates that an interval of between one year and two
years is appropriate in maintaining good health.
Reproductive planning after abortion
Many women prefer aborting to seeking help after getting an unwanted pregnancy. After-
abortion services are seen to have a positive impact to those who usually seek them. The after-
abortion reduces trauma and more pregnancies to those who seek the service.
Advanced maternal age
From the review conducted, women who conceived at an age above 35 years have a high
risk of contracting so many health related complication. It noted that an ideal age for child bear is
between 20 to 35 years.
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Discussion
Contraceptive use is seen as one method that will help improve the reproductive health of
women. Unfortunately, many women especially those who come from low income countries do
not have access to the modern methods of contraception (Eldredge, Markham, Ruiter, Kok, &
Parcel, 2016). Some women also lack skills and knowledge on the right way of using
contraceptives. This has led to so many unplanned pregnancies among women. There are several
factors which have derailed the efforts to attaining good health. One of these factors is coerced
pregnancy, cultures that support female genital mutilation and engagement in unprotected sex by
girls. Statistics shows that majority of girls and boys engage in sexual activity before the age of
twenty. This leads to adolescent pregnancy which leaves the future of young girls at stake.
Girls and women who get unwanted pregnancy in most cases do not seek hospital
services. This threatens the health of the mother and that of the child. Such unwanted
pregnancies lead to cases of abortion. Abortion may affect the ability of the mother to conceive
in future.
In order to improve the pre pregnancy health in women and girls, several factors should
be considered and kept in mind. Access to contraceptive services is crucial in improving health
of the people. It will ensure that births are planned (Shawe, et al 2015). Contraceptive services
should be made available to the users. Women should be taught on how to use such
contraceptive.
Majority of adolescents and youths are mostly idle. Different development program
should be put in place to empower the youths. These programs will engage them and therefore
help to cub teenage pregnancy. Provision of reproductive health education is critical towards
helping teenage in understanding themselves. They should be told of the dangers of engaging in
unprotected sexual activities.
Both early pregnancy and delayed pregnancy have been found to increase health
reproduction challenges such as child mortality, birth still and other related complications
(Goossens, et al 2018). To prevent such complication, women should maintain the right
pregnancy intervals, that is, not too close or not too long. Provision of more contraception
services to countries like Africa is recommended as a way of improving pre pregnancy care.
Conclusion
Most health reproduction related complication such as premature birth and child death
rate are often brought about by young girls entering marriage, in availability of contraception
services, taking too long to give birth among other things (Brown, et al2017). Implementation of
programs that prevent second pregnancy among teenagers and proper spacing of one child to the
other is highly encouraged. It is so unfortunate that some communities in some parts of the world
are still practicing female genital mutilation. Statistics from different health bodies shows that
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rape cases have increased significantly in the low and medium income countries in the recent
years. Some women including those who are married are coerced into sexual activity. It has also
been observed that some adolescent engage themselves in unprotected sex. Teenagers in school
should be provided with sexual education and contraceptives should be provided to women. This
will help in implementing the interventions.
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