Elizabeth Joseph1, Nazer Thalamkandathil2
BACKGROUND
Adolescence is a period of transition from childhood to adulthood extending from 11-19 years. Adolescent pregnancy is a high-risk situation because of psychological and physical immaturity. The study was undertaken to analyse the various aspects of pregnancy and labour in the adolescent mother and also to assess perinatal outcome.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
It was a one year clinical analytical study carried out in DM-WIMS. All the adolescent pregnant mothers admitted in the third trimester were included in the study irrespective of gravidity and parity. The cases were followed up in terms of details of delivery, pregnancy complications and perinatal outcome.
RESULTS
There were 124 cases of teenage pregnancy in third trimester out of 1006 deliveries (12.3%). Of the adolescent pregnancies, 98.04% were in 17-19 years age group. 99.8% of adolescent pregnancies occurred in married women. 91.53% of the adolescent pregnant women were primigravidas. 10% of adolescent mothers were admitted before term owing to detection of high-risk conditions like severe PIH, preterm labour, PPROM. 88.6% had vaginal delivery, 11.4% delivered by LSCS. 19.02% of cases had low birth weight infants. 35% of these babies needed admission during perinatal period.
CONCLUSION
Incidence of adolescent pregnancy was 12.3%. Teenagers were seen to have a higher need for counselling regarding nutrition, hygiene, breastfeeding and contraception. Course of labour was not seen to be significantly affected by age alone. Perinatal outcome was also good in these patients though there were a few avoidable admissions due to poor feeding techniques and decreased sense of responsibility.
