Health Promotion during Pregnancy

The care for a pregnant woman should focus on the whole being that entails managing and treating the pregnancy conditions as well as promoting the healthy behaviors and good lifestyle choices. Health promotion helps to ensure the safety of both the mother and the baby. The responsibility of the health care provider in health promotion is to identify the health risks of the complications during pregnancy and take the necessary measures. The provider educates the patients on the risks and provides support to address the risks (Tharpe, Farley & Jordan, 2013). The Essay provides a discussion of the implications of drug use, alcohol consumption, dietary habits, and the environmental exposures during pregnancy.

The need to educate pregnant women about the potential health risks and other implications requires that the practitioner nurse selects a suitable educational media piece. Pregnant women ought to make certain lifestyle changes to enhance their health status. The selected topic is smoking which forms the focus of the educational media piece to develop for health promotion during pregnancy. The target population is the surrounding communities to the selected community health facility and has a history of some women engaging in smoking. The most appropriate type of educational materials to use is posters since they are cost effective and targets a large population.

Posters are a common form of presenting health information in the community and also during conferences. It is evident that many people are more likely to read health information from a poster other than other methods of presentation. There is enhanced the effectiveness of using posters in achieving knowledge transfer, especially to a large population. The posters increase knowledge, change attitudes, and behavior as well as the integration of other educational interventions. The design and physical appearance of the poster help to determine the success of the sensitization programs. There is limited research on the effectiveness of the use of posters in achieving knowledge transfer, but the available studies show the method as appropriate in health related disciplines (Rowe & Illic, 2013).

The choice of the topic of smoking is because; the smoking during pregnancy is a preventable cause of illness and death among mothers and infants. Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, and other health problems, but has additional effects when used during pregnancy. It can lead to premature birth, birth defects, and infant death as the major implications. Smoking makes it hard to get pregnant, and women smokers are likely to have a miscarriage. It also has effects on the placenta which is the major source of food and oxygen during pregnancy. Most of the babies born to women smokers have birth defects which are a risk factor. The 2011 data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment and Monitoring System (PRAMS) shows that an approximate of 10% women smoked during the last three months of pregnancy (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011).

The use of posters for health promotion about the risks of smoking for the pregnant women has many associated benefits since it is simple to convey the intended information. The media piece selected is suitable for the patient population because many of them are educated and can understand the information. The population also has a good response towards educational materials that seek to promote their health. The design of the poster makes it easy for the target patient population to develop an interest in reading the provided information (Rowe & Illic, 2013). Posters stick in the viewer’s mind due to easy visibility and provision of summarized information. They can also be placed anywhere with a high viewership ability.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). During pregnancy.

Tharpe, N. L., Farley, C., & Jordan, R. G. (2013). Clinical Practice Guidelines for Midwifery & Women’s health (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Chapter 2, "Care of the Woman During Pregnancy" (pp. 41–81)

Rowe N. & Illic D. (2013) What is the evidence that poster presentations are effective in promoting knowledge transfer? A state of the art review; Health Information and Libraries Journal, 30, pp. 4-12, DOI: 10.1111/hir.12015.

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