Ehlers V J
Department of Advanced Nursing Sciences, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa.
Int Nurs Rev. 2003 Dec;50(4):229-41. doi: 10.1046/j.1466-7657.2003.00187.x.
In South Africa, contraceptives, as well as emergency contraceptives, are available free of charge. Since 1996, changed legislation has enabled women of all ages to choose whether they wish their pregnancies to be terminated during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Therefore, adolescent mothers, 19 years or younger at the time of their babies' birth, were investigated regarding why they failed to use contraceptive, emergency contraceptive or termination of pregnancy services.
To explore the knowledge of young mothers regarding contraception.
An exploratory descriptive survey, utilizing questionnaires and convenience sampling.
The majority of the participating 250 adolescent mothers lacked knowledge about contraceptives, emergency contraceptives and termination of pregnancy services. Merely legalizing the termination of pregnancies, and providing free contraceptive and emergency contraceptive services, did not affect the utilization of these services by the 250 adolescent mothers investigated.
Young mothers require more knowledge to enable them to make better informed decisions, and the services need to become more readily accessible and user friendly to adolescents. Reproductive health services provided specifically to adolescents could enhance the utilization of such services.
在南非，避孕药具以及紧急避孕药具都是免费提供的。自1996年以来，法律的变化使所有年龄段的女性都能够选择是否希望在怀孕的前12周内终止妊娠。因此，对在婴儿出生时年龄为19岁或更小的青少年母亲进行了调查，以了解她们未使用避孕措施、紧急避孕措施或终止妊娠服务的原因。
探讨年轻母亲对避孕的了解情况。
采用问卷调查和便利抽样的探索性描述性调查。
参与调查的250名青少年母亲中的大多数缺乏关于避孕药具、紧急避孕药具和终止妊娠服务的知识。仅仅使终止妊娠合法化以及提供免费的避孕和紧急避孕服务，并未影响被调查的250名青少年母亲对这些服务的使用。
年轻母亲需要更多知识，以便能够做出更明智的决定，并且这些服务需要对青少年来说更容易获得且更加方便使用。专门为青少年提供的生殖健康服务可以提高此类服务的利用率。
