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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
Keywords: Teen Pregnancy, Breastfeeding
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Not Answered
The 134th Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 4-8, 2006) of APHA