Abstract
High risk mothers and infants are classified as a vulnerable population. Increasingly high teenage pregnancy rates and inadequate prenatal care for minority lower class women are just two factors that play a key role into why this population is considered vulnerable. Other factors that come into play include the lack of education regarding early prenatal care, no health insurance, denial and the lack of family support. The consequences that occur from little to poor prenatal care results in an infant’s low birth rate and even infant mortality.
High Risk Mothers and Infants Nurses have the responsibility of caring for all populations of people including vulnerable populations. There are several types of vulnerable groups of people, the obvious two most nurses consider vulnerable are children and the elderly. Numerous other types of vulnerable poplulations exsist I am going to elaborate high risk mothers and infants. “This population reflects the currently high rates of teenage pregnancy and poor prenatal care, leading to birth-weight problems and infant mortality” ( Chesney 2012). Teenage mothers and minority women fall into this category because of the lack of health insurance which leads into the lack of access to proper health care and the …show more content…
fact that teenage mothers are often in denial at first so they tend to seek out for prenatal care later on in pregnancy.
Teenage mothers are faced with many obstacles when they become pregnant.
Fear, denial depression and shame are a few emotions that come into play. These emotions tend to make the mother less liable to tell an adult early in pregnancy which leads to them seeking prenatal care later in pregnancy and puts their unborn child at risk for low birth rate, disorders and even death. Seeking the proper guidance from an adult would alleviate some of these risk. Mutiple factors in a teenager’s life could affect the birth of the infant. “Vulnerable populations are at a increased risk for disease because of the interplay of the risk factors they face”(Cresia &Friberg
397).
References
Creasia, J., & Parker, B. (2011). Conceptual foundations. The bridge to professional nursing practice (5th ed.). St.Louis Missouri: Mosby.
De Chesnay, M., & Anderson, B. (2012). Caring for the Vulnerable: Persepective in nursing theory, practice and research (3 ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
Rosenburg, K. (2012, May). RN Population Care Coordinators. AJN American Journal of Nursing, 112(5), 16. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1097/01.NAJ.0000414304.39674.2b