The Need for a Model to Facilitate Health for Pregnant Learners Attending Secondary Schools in South Africa

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to point out the need for a model to facilitate health for pregnant learners attending secondary schools in South Africa. It motivates this need by presenting the findings of a study on the exploration and description of the experiences of pregnant learners attending secondary schools in Limpopo province of South Africa.A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was used to explore experiences of pregnant learners who attended secondary schools in Limpopo province. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with learners who were pregnant or were at some stage pregnant while attending secondary schools. A purposive sampling was used to select participants and due to data saturation ten learners participated. Data analysis generated six themes and eleven categories. The themes are (1) identification of pregnant learners, (2) continuation of pregnant learners' school career, (3) dilemmas related to school-attending pregnant learners, (4) support of school-attending pregnant learners, (5) gender in pregnancy caretaking and (6) communication and cooperation between teachers and parents. Pregnant learners revealed themselves while others were identified by their parents and teachers as they attempted to hide their pregnancies. Some pregnant learners continued attending school even when they faced challenges while others dropped out. Pregnant learnersreceived support from teachers and parentsbut in some cases that vital cooperation between parents and teachers was lacking. It can be concluded that pregnant learners facedhealth related challenges to continue attending school which requires a health facilitation model to enable pregnant learners to benefit from schooling and have positive health outcomes.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n25p83