Adolescent mothers. Self-perceived health education needs.

Sixty-six primiparous adolescent mothers, aged 14 to 18 years, were asked to identify what they felt they needed to know about caring for themselves and their infant during the first six weeks postpartum. Data were collected by a structured questionnaire. Responses were classified according to four categories: infant medical needs, mother-infant psychosocial needs, maternal physical needs, and daily physical infant care. Analysis of overall questionnaire responses shows that care of infant is of primary concern to young mothers in the postpartum period.