Things teen moms need to know By: Jessica Jones

According to CDC approximately 410,000 teen girls give birth to babies in the united states each year. Many of these girls have limited access to education and to a support system. Educators and health professional's, as wells as these teen mothers could benefit from a simple educational tool to help instruct the teen moms and reduce their stress.

Many teen mothers experience stress after they take their babies home from the hospital because they do not know what to expect.

According to America Academy of child and adolescent psychiatry “babies born to teenagers are at risk for neglect and abuse because their young mothers are uncertain about their roles and may be frustrated by the constant demands of caretaking”

For these reasons I decided to address this issue by creating a fun and easy to read book to help teen moms learn more about their babies in order to help them be more successful and less stressed from the beginning.

I will create a book containing this information. The narrator of the book will be the baby. The book will be written in simple terms that teen mothers can understand.

I began by researching to determine what information to include in the book. The first step I took was to interview a neonatal ICU nurse. The nurse explained that one of the biggest sources of stress for a teen mom is not knowing what the infant needs when he/she cries. Another factor that leads to stress for a new mom is no knowing how to read the babies signals.

After interviewing the nurse I began to research information on how to read an infants cues and understanding a new born state. In my research I found three skills that are important to help mothers become calm and confident parents. The three skills include understanding a newborns state, reading an infants cues, appreciating a babies capabilities.

Understanding a newborns state is needed to fulfill the needs of the newborn infant. A new infant can only communicate with crying. The mom must learn what each different cry means, weather it be because the infants is hungry, needs a diaper change, or is just plain irritable and needs sleep. Recognition of an infant’s stat is important to assure adequate feeding, enhance better sleep, and promote more interaction.

Learning a newborns state helps the parents and the newborn infant. The sooner a parent learns the cues of the infant, the quicker the parent’s and the newborns anxiety will diminish, and both the infant and the parent will be happy. Knowing infants cues will help assure adequate nutrition, sleep, and promote positive interactions.

Reading cues and responding can help parents see infants as people that they are able to help and this in turn helps parents feel that they have a relationship that is meaningful.

Learning to appreciate a babies capabilities is an ongoing thing that parent’s learn as the infant grows. Because engagement is crucial to parent-child attachment, appreciating and infants ability to engage with his/her parent is prerequisite to early attachment.

The newborn period is a critical time for parents to learn about the infant and the infants different cues, the less stress for the infant and parent. By having less stress, then infant and parent are able to bond better and communication is learned more easily. Infants cues are then cared for faster and in a more efficient manner.

Student Survey: I created a student survey to ask the teen moms that go to this school questions on things they would have liked more information on before they left the hospital. There were a total of 11 teen moms that were surveyed.

Summary Based on the research performed and the information learned, it was important to create an educational booklet that could be given to teen moms so that they would have the resources available to answer questions they might have in carrying for their newborn.

Any Questions?