Nursing personnel's perception of the care of adolescent pregnant women with preterm delivery

Introduction: prematurity is associated with one third of all infant deaths, and accounts for 45 % of newborns with infantile cerebral palsy and 25 % with cognitive or hearing impairment.

Objective: to describe the perception of nursing staff on the care of adolescent pregnant women with preterm delivery.

Methods: observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study in nursing professionals in charge of the care of adolescent pregnant women with preterm delivery belonging to the Hospital General Ambato- IESS of Ecuador, during 2021. The sample consisted of 15 nursing professionals.

Results: 65 % reported anemia as the main complication during pregnancy, 70 % stated that the vaccine they would recommend is diphtheria-tetanus, 80 % mentioned that the most frequent delivery they attended was by caesarean section, 65 % identified low birth weight as the main complication. Eighty percent recommended that prenatal care should be provided to adolescents starting in the first month of pregnancy, 70 % responded that psycho-emotional support is frequently provided to adolescents during labor, and 80 % said that mothers at this age are mostly at physical risk.

Conclusions: the nursing staff identified a series of factors that may predispose to the occurrence of preterm labor, complications before and during labor, as well as the need for vaccination in the pregnant woman, prenatal controls and psychoemotional care during labor.