Experiences of antenatal care among pregnant adolescents at Kanyama and Matero clinics in Lusaka district, Zambia

Abstract

BackgroundAdolescent pregnancy is among the many public health concerns not only in Zambia but also in other parts of the world. Exploring pregnant adolescents’ experiences of antenatal care may help to identify specific problems and the contextual relevant strategies to improve the access to antenatal care. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the lived experiences of antenatal care among pregnant adolescents aged between 12 to 19 years old at Kanyama and Matero Referral Clinics in Lusaka district of Zambia.MethodsThis was a qualitative study which used in-depth interviews to collect data. Maximum variation sampling technique was used to select 12 pregnant adolescents of 12 to 19 years age range that attended antenatal care. Data were analysed thematically with the help of Nvivo software version 10.ResultsThe study revealed that the adolescents experienced positive and negative antenatal care. While there were some reported cases of caring and friendly health care providers and older pregnant women, there were also reported cases of poor attitudes and behaviours by the older pregnant women and health care providers towards the adolescents. In addition, other issues that were reported by the adolescents were the opening hours for the health facilities which was not favourable to all adolescents and the lack of specific spaces for adolescents as well as inadequate privacy and confidentiality. Some solutions were suggested to overcome some of the problems such as reducing the waiting hours or time for consultations at the clinic and to have specific rooms or spaces for pregnant adolescents at the clinic.ConclusionAppropriate interventions targeting pregnant adolescents with emphasis on making antenatal care services more adolescent friendly may improve the quality of and accessibility of antenatal services. The adolescent friendly antenatal services should integrate health promotion activities aimed at sensitising elderly women within the health facilities on the importance of supporting pregnant adolescents.

Antenatal Care Service Utilization Among Adolescent Pregnant Women–Evidence From Swabhimaan Programme in India

“…India is home to 243 million adolescents (10-19 years) out of which 120 million are adolescent girls, accounting for nearly 10% of its population (1). Pregnancy in the adolescence period continues to be a challenge in low-and middle-income countries, with an estimated 16 million girls aged [15][16][17][18][19], and 2 million girls under the age of 15 years, becoming pregnant every year (2). World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that adolescent pregnancies account for 11% of all births globally (3).…”

“…The guidelines on improving adolescent health recommend increased utilization of skilled antenatal care (ANC), childbirth, and postnatal care among adolescents (16). Several studies (17,18) have shown that most of the obstetric complications can be dodged by timely access to preventive and curative health services like ANC. ANC is essential for ensuring safe motherhood.…”

“…Adult pregnant women are more likely to utilize ANC as compared to adolescent pregnant women, and a number of socioeconomic and demographic factors like education, employment, income, place of residence, geographical variations, birth order, and parity explain the differences in utilization of ANC services among adolescent and adult pregnant women (26)(27)(28). However, there is insufficient evidence available exclusively on the use of ANC services by adolescent pregnant women, and their specific vulnerabilities (17,29,30). Exploring the ANC utilization among adolescent pregnant women and adult pregnant women may be useful to spot disparities, distinguish barriers, and suggest appropriate measures to enhance the uptake of ANC services.…”

Optimum utilization of antenatal and postnatal cares among young women in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia: A community based-cross sectional study

“…Results from this study suggested that older young women (20-24 years old) have an increased probability to receive optimum ANC than younger mothers (18-19 years old). Several other studies observed similar results [30,41], even if there is still debate on it [35]. Among other explanations, pregnancies in younger women are more probably unwanted [42] and there is a clear association between unintended pregnancies and a reduced health seeking behavior [43,44].…”

“…Literature yields that age, wealth status, ability to communicate with health care providers, and the existence of health complications [7,13,[28][29][30][31]. Cultural and social norms also inhibit young to ask, obtain information, discuss and express their worries about sexual and reproductive health issues because it is often considered as taboos to discuss sexuality issues with families or community members [30,32].…”