@article{ref1,
title="Childcare practices among teenage mothers in Ghana: a qualitative study using the ecological systems theory",
journal="BMC public health",
year="2021",
author="Twintoh, Reuben Foster and Anku, Prince Justin and Amu, Hubert and Korsah, Kwaku Kissah and Darteh, Eugene Kofour Maafo",
volume="21",
number="1",
pages="e16-e16",
abstract="BACKGROUND: While appropriate care for children is essential for optimal growth and protection against child morbidity and mortality, teenage mothers have been shown to  deviate from the recommended childcare practices. This study explored the childcare  practices among teenage mothers in Ghana using Ecological Systems Theory by  Bronfenbrenner as a theoretical framework. <br><br>METHODS: Employing qualitative approach  to inquiry, evidence was drawn from 30 teenage mothers using in-depth interviews. The data were analysed and presented following systematic qualitative-oriented text  analysis strategy with verbatim quotes from study participants to support the  emergent themes. <br><br>RESULTS: It was evident that teenage mothers have limited skills in  childcare practices and often resorted to practices with potentially adverse health  outcomes for their children. They, for instance, applied hot towels they had heated  with hot stones to the children's umbilical stump. We found that teenage mothers  were not in sync with their macro- and exo-systems, thereby depriving themselves and  their babies of the much-needed guidance and support in caring for their babies. Teenage mothers were often confused and sometimes clueless about best childcare  practices at a given point in time. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Childcare practices by teenage  mothers are far from the ideal. To improve on child health (especially children born  to teenage mothers), efforts at both the macro- and exo-systems should be directed  at exposing teenage mothers to best child care practices that inure to the benefits  of their children. Ante- and postnatal visits should be used to provide specific  education for mothers, especially first-time teenage mothers on the care needs of  babies and how to provide these needs.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1471-2458",
doi="10.1186/s12889-020-09889-7",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09889-7"
}