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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Alice Hopkins-Loy, Communication and Journalism, University of New Mexico, 18 Sibley Rd., Santa Fe, NM 87508, 505.263.5180, alice@aliceloy.com

Developing and implementing successful health promotion initiatives, such as increasing the number of teen mothers electing to breastfeed their infants, requires a practitioner to understand the target population's decision-making process. This project visually represents an analysis of teen mothers' decision process and offers insight regarding the decision outcome; the great majority of teen mothers do not breastfeed. A mother's right to breastfeed her infant is often undermined by cultural, familial, and personal values, beliefs, and norms. However, through understanding the relationship between these factors and particular stages in the decision process, health practitioners will improve their communication strategies and zero in on key intervention points in the decision process. Moreover, we will garner a more sophisticated approach to implementing change in this arena through dispelling the belief that health-related decisions are the result of a person's access to accurate information. This study finds it is the format in which the information is presented, as well as the highlighting of particular aspects of the information that most influence a teen mothers' decision to breastfeed.

Learning Objectives: After viewing and discussing this poster/project participants will

• Be able to positively affect the breastfeeding decision process of teens to achieve greater adoption of this health behavior.
• Have identified and explored the ten stages of the maternal feeding decision process.
• Have isolated the most critical stages of this process as they relate to intervention for improved outcomes (increased breastfeeding rates).
• Have identified a specific element of each stage in the process that can be better addressed through improved educational materials, and greater emphasis in health promotion interactions.
• Be prepared to make specific changes to breastfeeding promotional materials targeting teen mothers that will result in higher breastfeeding rates.
• Have gained insight and compassion regarding the reasons underpinning teen mothers' feeding decisions.

Keywords: Teen Pregnancy, Breastfeeding

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered