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Teen Moms Are at a Higher Risk of Birth Complications
- By Anita Brown
- Published 9 November 2010
- Women's Issues
- Unrated
Compared with mothers in older age groups, teenage mothers are at higher risk of experiencing medical complications. There are peculiar risks to an infant when the mother is not completely mature. Most teenagers are not physically, emotionally, or even financially ready to bear and take care for a newborn, their infants are inclined to possess low birth weight and are liable to various illnesses. A new research carried out at the University of Cork and the University of Manchester has justified these observations.
Teen Mums have higher risk of birth complications.This was a cohort study with aim to see if babies born to teenage mothers were more expected to be premature or a low birth weight. The researcher workers used a database yielded from the Northwestern Perinatal Survey and found records of all babies born to women aged between 14 and 29 years. For the analysis purpose, the women were classified into three age groups: 14 to 17 years, 18 to 19 years and 20 to 29 years of age.
Normal term pregnancies last to 37 to 40 weeks, in general. In this study the investigators defined preterm delivery as greater than 33 weeks but l
ess than 37 weeks of gestation, and very preterm delivery as delivery between 23 and 33 weeks. They also evaluated if the infant had a normal birth weight or was small for gestational age, SGA using individualized birth weight ratios. The babies were considered SGA if their ratios were in the bottom 5% and very SGA if they were in the bottom 3%.
From records of 56,353 births it was found out that:
(a) 3,636 babies were born to women aged between 14 and 16 years
(b) 7,506 babies were born to mothers between 18 and 19 years
(c) 45,211 babies were born to mothers between 20 and 29 years of age
For mothers aged between 14 and 17 years the risk of preterm baby birth was 21% higher during first births and 93% higher during second births. The danger of having a low birth weight baby was also found to be greater. The research also found that the relation between immature maternal age and birth weight could be related to the effect of smoking to some extent.
These findings suggest a need to promote the postnatal health education and use of various contraceptive methods for teenage mothers in order to prevent a subsequent teenage pregnancy with potentially high risks of unfavorable outcomes.
Teen Mums have higher risk of birth complications.This was a cohort study with aim to see if babies born to teenage mothers were more expected to be premature or a low birth weight. The researcher workers used a database yielded from the Northwestern Perinatal Survey and found records of all babies born to women aged between 14 and 29 years. For the analysis purpose, the women were classified into three age groups: 14 to 17 years, 18 to 19 years and 20 to 29 years of age.
Normal term pregnancies last to 37 to 40 weeks, in general. In this study the investigators defined preterm delivery as greater than 33 weeks but l
From records of 56,353 births it was found out that:
(a) 3,636 babies were born to women aged between 14 and 16 years
(b) 7,506 babies were born to mothers between 18 and 19 years
(c) 45,211 babies were born to mothers between 20 and 29 years of age
For mothers aged between 14 and 17 years the risk of preterm baby birth was 21% higher during first births and 93% higher during second births. The danger of having a low birth weight baby was also found to be greater. The research also found that the relation between immature maternal age and birth weight could be related to the effect of smoking to some extent.
These findings suggest a need to promote the postnatal health education and use of various contraceptive methods for teenage mothers in order to prevent a subsequent teenage pregnancy with potentially high risks of unfavorable outcomes.
Anita Brown
Dr. Anita Brown is a New York based Physician. She contributes to http://www.HealthEnclave.com by writing articles on a broad range of topics and interests.
View all articles by Anita Brown