Abstract
Repeated pregnancy in postpartum adolescents is a crisis that affects their physical and psychosocial wellbeing, including the newborn, family, economic and society. This quasi-experimental study aimed to examine the effectiveness of program for promoting contraceptive behaviors to prevent repeated pregnancy in postpartum teenage mothers. The subjects were 170 postpartum adolescents attending postpartum units at Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital, Lamphung Hospital, Lamphun Hospital, and Phayao Hospital during August 2018 to November 2019. The subjects were purposively selected and divided into 89 as a control group and 81 as an experimental group. The control group received routine postpartum care and the experimental group received the program for promoting contraceptive behaviors. The intervention instruments consisted of 1) the Program for Promoting Contraceptive Behaviors and 2) Handbook of Contraceptive Used for Postpartum Adolescents which developed by the researchers. Instruments for data collection consisted of 1) the Intension on Contraceptive Use for Postpartum Adolescents Recording Form, 2) the Decision on Contraceptive Use for Postpartum Adolescents Recording Form, 3) the Selection of Contraceptive Uses Recording Form, 4) the Utilization Rate of Contraceptive Use for Postpartum Adolescents Recording Form, and 5) the Repeated Pregnancy Rate of Postpartum Adolescents Recording Form. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistic, t-test for independent sample and Chi-square test.
The results revealed that:
1) The proportion of participant intended to use contraception after the 48-hour postpartum, both groups were not different. The period intended to start contraception in both groups is statistically significant different (p<.01). The experimental group intends to start contraception before returning home or at the postpartum check up more than the control group.
2) The experimental group, which recieced the Program for Promoting Contraceptive Behaviors, has a proportion of the participants that decide to use contraception for three months statistically significant higher than the control group (p<.05), however, there are no different proportions at 6 weeks, 6 months and 12 months after birth of both groups.
3) The experimental groups and control groups have no different proportion of utilization rate of contraceptive use in the three months, 6 months and 12 months after birth.
4) The proportion of repeated pregnancies at 1 year after birth of both groups is no different. The results of this study showed that the Program for Promoting Contraceptive Behaviors to prevent repeated pregnancies in the postpartum teenage mothers is suitable to the context of teenage mothers in the Northern region. Nurse-midwives can be used as a guideline to promote contraceptive use and to prevent repeated pregnancy in postpartum adolescents
