Abstract

MONROY RUBIANO, MARY LUZ  and  MUNOZ DE RODRIGUEZ, LUCY. Discovering care practices of pregnant adolescents with vaginal infection. av.enferm. [online]. 2009, vol.27, n.2, pp.92-101. ISSN 0121-4500.

The study was aimed at discovering the meaning of care from the perspective of cultural beliefs and customs of pregnant adolescents with vaginal infection diagnosis who had prenatal control at the ESE Hospital San Rafael of the city of Girardot during the first quarter of 2007. Qualitative ethnographic design, based on ethnonursing of Leininger's transcultural theory. Interviews and Spradley's ethnographic analysis were used and an average of three interviews was applied to each one of the 7 participants, until saturation of information was achieved. The sample's representativeness was based on the quality of the information offered. From the in depth analysis, three domains and taxonomies were built: 1. Knowledge of vaginal infection, 2. Protecting actions, 3. Counseling received. The study revealed that pregnant adolescents had knowledge of vaginal infections, they knew its causes and consequences and they established protective measures aimed at combating the infection and at avoiding reinfection, with treatments based more on informal counseling rather than on a formal one. For pregnant adolescents, treating the vaginal infection meant putting into practice the advice received from the informal and formal sources in combating vaginal infection until it disappear and in avoiding reinfection as well as complications for themselves and for the baby to be born. The different ways they had of knowing and of establishing care practices during the vaginal infection were evident and the absence of formal counseling from professional nurses was highlighted.

Keywords : infection; pregnant women; adolescent; maternal behavior; nursing.

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