Background: Adolescent mothers are at a much higher risk for maternal mortality compared to mothers aged\n20 years and above. Newborns born to adolescent mothers are also more likely to have low birth weight, with the\nrisk of long-term effects such as early onset of adult diabetes than newborns of older mothers. Few studies have\ninvestigated the determinants of adequate quality maternal and child healthcare services to pregnant adolescents.\nThis study was conducted to gain an understanding of nursesâ�� and midwivesâ�� intentions to provide maternal and\nchild healthcare and family planning services to adolescents in South Africa.\nMethods: A total of 190 nurses and midwives completed a cross-sectional survey. The survey included components\non demographics, knowledge of maternal and child healthcare (MCH) and family planning (FP) services, attitude\ntowards family planning services, subjective norms regarding maternal and child healthcare and family planning\nservices, self-efficacy with maternal and child healthcare and family planning services, and intentions to provide\nmaternal and child healthcare and family planning services to adolescents. Pearsonâ��s correlation analysis was\nconducted to determine the association between knowledge, attitude, subjective norms, self-efficacy, and intention\nvariables for FP and MCH services. A 2-step linear regression analysis was then conducted for both FP and MCH\nservices to predict the intentions to provide FP and MCH services to adolescents.\nResults: Self-efficacy to conduct MCH services (�² = 0.55, p < 0.01) and years of experience as a nurse- midwife\n(�² = 0.14, p < 0.05) were associated with stronger intentions to provide the services. Self-efficacy to provide FP\nservices (�² = 0.30, p < 0.01) was associated with stronger intentions to provide FP services.\nConclusions: Self-efficacy has a strong and positive association with the intentions to provide both MCH and FP\nservices, while there is a moderate association with attitude and norms. There is a need to improve and strengthen\nnursesâ�� and midwivesâ�� self-efficacy in conducting both MCH and FP services in order to improve the quality and\nutilization of the services by adolescents in South Africa.
Loading....