Content area
Full Text
ABSTRACT
Teenage pregnancy continues to be a major public health issue and is associated with significant medical, social, and economic risk. Nutritional status is considered to be one of the most important environmental factors affecting the health of the teenage mother and her infant. An adolescent's nutrition and weight status and lifestyle practices prior to and at conception, as well as during conception profoundly influences pregnancy and infant outcome. This article addresses nutrient needs of pregnant adolescents and nutrition screening, assessment, and counseling approaches.
Adolescent pregnancy is a major public health issue and is associated with significant medical, nutritional, social and economic risk for young women throughout the world. Nutritional status is considered to be one of the most important factors affecting the health of the teenage mother and her infant. An adolescent's nutrition and weight status and lifestyle practices prior to and during gestation profoundly influence pregnancy and infant outcome. Helping adolescent girls achieve the best nutritional status possible before they enter their reproductive years and also throughout their pregnancy has the potential of decreasing the risk of some of the adverse health complications and improving pregnancy and infant outcomes.
Nutrition counseling is an important aspect of prenatal care for all women, but it is especially important for adolescents. Adolescence is a time of rapid physical growth with nutritional requirements increasing significantly to support growth and development. The additional energy and nutrient demands of pregnancy place adolescents at nutritional risk. Many adolescents in industrialized countries enter pregnancy with poor nutritional status due to common eating behaviors seen among teens, such as snacking in place of eating meals, meal skipping (especially breakfast skipping), unhealthy weight control practices, and frequent consumption of fast food. Physiological and psychosocial immaturity increase nutritional risks for pregnant adolescents due to the potential for continued growth and development during pregnancy as well as the inability to handle the stresses of pregnancy. Nutrition screening and counseling can help to alleviate these risk factors and promote optimal maternal and fetal outcomes.
NUTRITION SCREENING AND ASSESSMENT
Nutrition assessment and counseling is a key component of comprehensive preconceptional, prenatal, and postpartum health care services. All pregnant adolescents should be screened for nutrition risk factors (Table 1). Those young women found to be at risk...