Adolescent mothers' knowledge and perceptions of contraceptives in Tshwane, South Africa

Abstract

This descriptive quantitative survey attempted to identify reasons why adolescent mothers (aged 19 or younger at the birth of their babies) failed to utilise contraceptive, emergency contraceptive and/or termination of pregnancy (TOP) services. The research population comprised all adolescent mothers in the region, the accessible convenience sample consisted of all adolescent mothers who visited Tshwane’s Metropolitan Council clinics from 1 January till 31 March 2000, and who were willing to complete questionnaires, designed and tested during a joint World Health Organization and Commonwealth Reproductive Health Workshop in Harare, Zimbabwe, during 1998. During pretesting, 12 questionnaires were completed by adolescent mothers who were excluded from the actual study. This report refers to data (analysed with the Epi-Info program) obtained from 61 completed questionnaires. Only a minority of these 61 adolescent mothers earned sufficient money to sustain themselves and their babies. In spite of these unfavourable financial circumstances, only 23 (37.7%) had used contraceptives prior to conception. None of them used emergency contraceptives and none accessed termination of pregnancy services. Although all these services are available free of charge in the region, these adolescent mothers did not use them. The adolescent mothers required more knowledge about contraceptives, emergency contraceptives and TOP services, and they need to perceive these services as being accessible and safe before they could utilise them effectively. Clinics providing these services should be open over weekends and during evenings so that adolescents can obtain contraceptive services without fear of meeting their mothers, aunts or teachers at these clinics. Reproductive health clinics should also strive towards providing more adolescent-friendly services.