Romanian Journal of Pediatrics (Mar 2016)

MEDICAL AND SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY

  • Marioara Boia,
  • E.S. Boia,
  • Daniela Cioboata,
  • Aniko Manea

DOI
https://doi.org/10.37897/RJP.2016.1.4
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 65, no. 1
pp. 19 – 23

Abstract

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Pregnancy in adolescence is a special situation, especially among teenagers who do not benefit from family support, being at risk of not receiving adequate prenatal care during pregnancy, of having complications during pregnancy and birth for the mother and especially for the newborn. Aim. The purpose of this paper is to present the pathology and complications associated to the newborn of teenage mothers. Material and method. Retrospective study of patients hospitalized during January 2013 – December 2014, the study inclusion criteria being maternal age up to 17 years. Results. 66.67% of the newborn in the study were preterm babies and 33.33% were newborn at term. Postpartum complications were more frequent and severe in the preterm newborns versus the newborn at term group. Correlating data about pathology, gestational age and birth weight with biological age of the mother reveals that mothers aged 13-15 years gave birth mostly to premature newborn as opposed to mothers aged 16 to 17 years. Mothers of preterm newborn that had extremely low and low birth weight were aged between 13-15 years. Conclusions. Pregnancy in adolescence is associated most frequently with giving birth to preterm newborn. The lower the biological age of the mother is, the higher the risk of a premature birth, the more severe complications being associated with lower gestational age and lower birth weight of the premature baby.

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