Meeting the Needs of Young Married Women and First-time Parents - Supplementary Training Modules

This set of three training modules was developed to help health care providers, community workers, and small group facilitators gain the skills to meet the sexual and reproductive health needs of young married women and first-time parents (FTPs). As stated in the the training modules, young married women and FTPs “face a unique set of challenges to living healthy sexual and reproductive lives - challenges that are different to those faced by unmarried adolescents, older married women or older parents.”  For example, young married women are often kept at home and isolated from social networks or access to health information and services, and often they have little decision making power when it comes to when and if they want to have children. Generally, “unequal power dynamics and gender inequalities place young married women at particular risk of gender-based violence, gender-based household maltreatment, pressure to bear children before they are ready, and prevention of pregnancy spacing.”

The training is designed for use in francophone West Africa, where a significant proportion of adolescent girls aged 15–19 and young women aged 20–24 are married or living in union, but it can easily be adapted for other settings. They are intended as supplementary trainings to any full training programme on adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health (AYSRH) which means that training participants need to have already received training in AYSRH. Alternatively, the training sessions could be integrated into a broader AYSRH training.

The three training modules are as follows: 

Small Group Facilitation for Young Married Women and First-time Parents in West Africa: A Supplemental Training Module for Facilitators - this 2-day training is intended for young married women and FTPs who will facilitate small groups of their peers, where they can discuss sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and contraception, as well as participate in activities (using the GREAT Activity Cards) that help them build problem-solving skills and better negotiate the pressures they face to have children. The module covers topics including healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy (HTSP), small group facilitation, and the particular challenges and pressures concerning childbearing faced by young married women and FTPs. The training consists of trainer presentations (slides included) and numerous participatory small and large group activities.

Providing Reproductive Health Services to Young Married Women and First-time Parents in West Africa: A Supplemental Training Module for Community Workers Conducting Home Visits - this 2-day training is intended for community health workers. The module covers topics including HTSP, nonjudgmental counseling for young married women and FTPs, and the particular challenges and pressures concerning childbearing faced by young married women and FTPs. The training consists of trainer presentations (slides included) and numerous participatory small and large group activities.

Providing Reproductive Health Services to Young Married Women and First-time Parents in West Africa: A Supplemental Training Module for Facility-based Health Care Providers - this 1-day training is intended for facility-based health care providers (e.g., doctors, nurses, midwives).  The module covers topics including healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy (HTSP), nonjudgmental counseling for young married women and FTPs, and the particular challenges and pressures concerning childbearing faced by young married women and FTPs. The training consists of trainer presentations (slides included) and participatory small and large group activities.