By now if you put together your SLP papers from Module 1 - 3, you have a program/intervention proposal to address a health behavior problem. Carefully read through your SLP papers from Modules 1 throu

Health Behavior

Cleavon Battie

OCT2017FT-BHE 418

Module 1 Case Assignment

Dr. Camilla Bantum

6 Nov 2017

Introduction

In terms of framing the idealized healthcare care services across globe, the social needs of people must be addressed with high priority. People tend to stick to their conventional beliefs, restricting the entry of new interventions, though medically sound enough to help them sustain their community in terms of healthcare, resulting in the form of gaps in the healthcare services properly delivered. In Latin American context, the culture has been identical with the social issue of teenage pregnancy which has been understood as the result of traditional system of the societies across all nations. However, it must be understood that the problem of teenage pregnancy is not about experiencing the motherhood at an early age, instead, it is symbolic to the social, psychological and several medically driven problems to the teenage girls who are forced to have a subjugated identity.

The Background of the Problem

At first, the major factor associated with the teenage pregnancy in Latin American community is about the traditional culture of the tribes and urban living people i.e. the male domination in the society is still seen with effect and women find fewer spaces in comparison of men in the society of working. They are forced to remain within the homely premises and girls at the young age are encouraged to ‘transform’ themselves from a young girl to an adult woman. Pregnancy has been assumed as something which could alter the thinking pattern of a girl, leading to the final thought that it might be a great idea to have her baby at the early age when the ratio of fertility is at its best level.

Historically, this belief was in motion however, with some advancement in the medically driven interventions, the problem has been reduced to a bit which is to be discussed in the later part of the paper. The formal addressing and delivery of the quality healthcare services through effective modelling of the frameworks is the need of the hour in Latin American context.

The Statistics of the Problem

Further, if the stats related to the various provinces of Latin America are to be examined, it seems that there is a slight downfall in the teen pregnancy rates in the states of Latin America in the recent years but still it is on a high note which cannot be ignored. According to the census of 1991, the teen pregnancy rate of 15 to 19-year aged girls was 11.9 to16.9% in the major nations like Brazil, Bolivia, and Argentina. (UNICEF, 2011) in 2001, the same census procedure was adopted to measure the increase in the rate of the teenage pregnancy which now ranged in between 12 to 19% overall. It was in the light of the fact that the medical interventions were possible and well in approach, unlike the decades of 19th century when the contraception methods were barely available for common usages and girls were prone to get early pregnancies.

Addressing the Health Behavior

There are related aspects of this issue in the light of the psychological and social impacts over the early pregnancy gains of the teenage girls. In a recent interview with Maimah Karmo (2017), Beth Doane, one of the leading social activists in various regions of the Latin America found out that teenage pregnancy is a result of issues related to an enforced subjugated identity and a comprehensive lack of self-esteem. Too often, adolescent girls associate pregnancy with becoming a woman and having a role that is respected and deemed socially important. There is a lot of work and education needed to empower teenagers in Latin America to break these cycles of poverty, violence, and embedded family patterns. (Karmo, 2017)

Benefits or Consequences of the Behaviors

Certainly, in the light of the fact stated by one activist in the area, it seems that there are several issues related with the healthcare services which need to play the role of a convener in the process of making people aware about the negative impacts of the teenage pregnancy in the various

Regions (Sedgh et al., 2015). The need would be to address the poverty and the violence against woman in social context. It is more like putting the social interventions on hold with the help of the medically conducted awareness programs i.e. the background the issue lies in the fact that social, economic, and medical needs of the tribal communities and urban communities must be taken into consideration.

When we begin to look at some of the consequences respectively, we also must consider that this is a global systemic issue. The risk factors for teen pregnancy are not just harmful but are consider extremely dangerous. Because we are dealing with teenage girls from poverty stricken areas then it is safe to say that they have a lack access to health care services, this is including sexual and reproductive health education. The Health risks that some of these teenage mothers’ experience are maternal mortality, premature birth, still birth, and unsafe abortions (Plan International, n.d.).

References

UNICEF (2007). Teenage Motherhood in Latin America and the Caribbean: Trends, problems, and challenges. https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiAyovF5JjXAhXLMY8KHUixCv4QFggtMAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.unicef.org%2Flac%2Fdesafios_Nro4_eng_Final(1).pdf&usg=AOvVaw2gy4BCxYm-5LHi2ugf9I52