Discussion: Health Promotion During Pregnancy

When caring for pregnant women, it is important to care for the whole person. This means you not only manage the pregnancy and treat conditions, but you also promote healthy behaviors and good lifestyle choices. Through health promotion, you can help to ensure the safety of both the mother and the baby. Your role in health promotion is to identify health risks that might result in pregnancy complications, educate patients on these risks, and provide the necessary support to help patients mitigate these risks. In this Discussion, you examine implications of drug use, alcohol consumption, dietary habits, and environmental exposures during pregnancy, and you consider ways to educate pregnant women about such risks.

To prepare:

Review Chapter 2 of the Tharpe et al. text and the article from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in this week’s Learning Resources.

Consider lifestyle changes that pregnant women must make in relation to smoking, drinking, taking drugs (legal and illegal), eating habits, and caring for pets. Select one of these topics to be the focus of an educational media piece you would create for health promotion during pregnancy.

Think about the patient population that you treat within your practicum setting. Consider ways to educate these patients on health promotion as it relates to the topic you selected. Then, consider the types of educational pieces, such as flyers, posters, public service announcements, or other media, that might be most effective with your patient population.