Publications

Abstract:

Introduction: Pregnancy that occurs in the ages of 13-19 years is considered as teenage pregnancy. Pregnancy and child birth related complication are the second biggest causes of death among this age group. India ranks first among countries with the highest number of teenage pregnancies, most of who are from rural areas.

Objectives:To assess the socio-demographic profile and the outcomes of teenage pregnancies and to compare the outcomes of teenage pregnancies with non-teen pregnancies in a rural area.

Methodology:This study was a retrospective record review, conducted in a rural maternity hospital in Ramnagara district of South Karnataka. Hospital records for the past one year were reviewed for outcomes of deliveries. A proportion of 1:2 (one teen: two non-teen pregnancies) was maintained while collecting the data after obtaining permission from the hospital authorities. Data was entered in MS Excel and analyzed using standard statistical packages.

Results: Among the 45 teenage and 92 non teenage pregnancies, 55.5% and 60.9% had completed school education and mean age of marriage was 17.8 years and 20 years respectively. Among teenage and non-teenage pregnancies respectively, 4.4% and 17.4% had anemia, 97.8% and 94.6% were term deliveries, 82.2% and 87% had normal delivery, 8.9% and 4.3% had postpartum hemorrhage and 13.3% and 25% had low birth weight babies. Teen and non-teen pregnancies were not significantly associated with any of the socio-demographic factors or other factors like anaemia, type of delivery, term of delivery, birth weight of the baby, complications in mother and baby.

Conclusion:Teen mothers had a higher proportion of PPH as compared to non-teens, but there was no statistically significant difference in the outcomes of teen and non-teen pregnancies. This could be attributed to the fact that all the teen pregnancies in the present study were above the age of 18 years.