ASSESSMENT OF NUTRITION AN HEALTH STATUS OF YOUNG MOTHERS

The aim of the study was to evaluate the factors that affect the health of both infants and young mothers. In such a case, 60 young mothers living in the area of Mecca of 14 to 16 years old were considered. The results showed that 53.3% of the mothers have finished their pregnancy with normal weight, while 40% of the mothers got pregnant when they were less than 16 years old, which lead to acquiring a lot of diseases. On the other hand, 60% of the mothers preferred the governmentally runned hospitals to deliver their babies and 83% of the cases delivered normally. Most of the studied cases delivered for the second time with one-year gap between the first pregnancy and the second one (28%). The percent of natural feeding among were screened. The results showed that only 11.65 of the cases breast-feed their children. The miscarriage happened only once in 26% of the cases and twice in 6.6% of the cases. The health of the children was normally good in 73% of the children while 50% of the children suffered from physiological jaundice, vomiting (21%), constipation (13%). In genera, there was direct relationship between the weight of the child and its health. The study of nutritional history of the cases clarified that most of the mothers preferd to have white bread with a level of 66.6% then rice (31.67%), followed by brown bread, potato (31.67), 25% consequently. There was an increase in sugar consumption (71.67%) then chocolate (51.61%). Protein uptake was mainly by eating chicken once a week (75%) with recognizable decrease in the protein milk uptake and therefore this study stressed on the importance of spreading of the health awareness regarding different issues including the nutritional habits.