My name is Kari Jahner and I am a nursing student at the University of
North Dakota. After reading discussion on teen moms, I was very
surprised and pleased to feel such a positive attitude. It also
prompted me to reasearch and find out that only 9.1% of mothers under
the age of 20 continue to breastfeed until their baby is 6 months old
(Pobocik & et al. 2000).This made me ask why? What made my sister, who
gave birth in January of 2000, at the age of 17, breastfeed until her
baby was 1 year old? I then considered external circumstances. My mom,
who is a pediatric RN and breastfed all 4 of her children and I
encouraged and educated her throughtout 9 months of pregnancy and after,
as long as it took. It is our job to intervene, since not every one has
this support system. Since teens are developmentally more focused on
themselves and in general think of meeting their own needs first, we
shared information such as her figure coming back faster from
breastfeeding (Kennedy, 2000). Teens need someone to be cognitively on
their level and explain the pros compared to standing above them
preaching at them. A New Futures School program in New Mexico has
educated teen moms on breastfeeding since 1970 (Berg & Jaramillo, 2000).
Serving over 500 young women a year, this education program attains a
breastfeeding initiation rate of 73% (Berg & Jaramillo, 2000)!! They
incorporate the whole family and boyfriend with education, address the
three most common reason teens don't breastfeed and empower young women
to instill the confidence to deal with breastfeeding and their new
lifestyle. This program is presented in basic terms to motivate at an
appropriate teen level and involves repeat demos to drill in what is
being taught. They use dolls to simulate positions and a proper latch.
They also design an ad about breastfeeding and hang them up around the
building. Check this program out! It sounds great! It makes me feel like
starting something similar around here. The least all of us can do is
keep on encouraging and educating our teenage clints to hopefully
increasing breastfeeding.
References
Berg, T. & Jaramillo, Y. (2000). Teens and breastfeeding at new
futures school. International Journal of Childbirth Education, 15 (2),
p. 11-15.
Kennedy, M. (2000). Teens and breastfeeding. International
Journal of Childbirth Education, 15 (2), p. 20-25.
Pobocik, R., Benavente, J., Allison, Schwab, C., Boudreau, N. & et
al. (2000). Effect of a breastfeeding education and support program on
breastfeeding initiation and duration in a culturally group of
adolescents. Journal of Nutrition Education, 32 (3), p. 139-145.
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