Set Your Mind. Set Your Goals: Delaware's Reproductive Life Plan for Young Women

Noyes, Susan Smith

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Title: Set Your Mind. Set Your Goals: Delaware's Reproductive Life Plan for Young Women

Woodrow Wilson (Gaylord National Harbor)

Susan Smith Noyes, MSN, RN , Chair, Education and Prevention, Delaware Healthy Mothers and Infants Consortium, Hockessin, DE

Michele K. Savin, MSN, NNP , Christiana Care Health Services, Wilmington, DE

Discipline: Women’s Health (WH)

Learning Objectives:

• Identify barriers and strategies in marketing preconception resources to a teen audience
• Determine which entities to partner with to develop and distribute appropriate resources
• Recognize the theoretical framework used to inform this tool and how it can be applied for their work.

Submission Description:

Purpose for the program: Given that fifty percent of all pregnancies are unplanned, increasing awareness and empowerment of women is essential to decrease unplanned pregnancies.

Proposed change: The Delaware Healthy Mother and Infant Consortium recognized the need for a guidance tool for women 19-26 that would both support the services offered under the statewide preconception care model and deliver key messaging around deciding if or when to become pregnant. By encouraging women to address issues earlier in life such as emotional and mental health, healthy relationships, health promotion, and contraception, they are better equipped to achieve optimal wellness for a lifetime.

Implementation, outcomes and evaluation: Set Your Mind. Set Your Goals is a broad health education strategy that includes: preconception text messages (similar to Text4Babies), web-based interactive education and support, provider education on the Life Course Perspective and health promotion through peer educators and health ambassadors. This statewide initiative is underway and outcomes are being monitored by the Department of Health under the auspices of the Delaware Healthy Mother and Infant Consortium.

Implications for nursing practice: By utilizing the various resources in this program, nurses can facilitate positive behavior change and help young women become aware of the importance of a life-course perspective.

Keywords: health, unplanned pregnancy, reproductive lifeplan, preconception care, lifecourse perspective