Peer-reviewed article
Outcome of Deliveries Among Adolescent Girls at The SOS Kara Mother And Child Hospital : Clinical Aspects, Epidemiology And Prognosis
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Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This retrospective descriptive study looked at deliveries among girls aged 10 to 19 at the SOS Mother and Child Hospital in Kara between January 2018 and December 2021. Pregnancies among the patients reviewed made up 5.18%. Most girls were 18 or 19, and most had natural births. The commonest maternal complication was a perineal tear after birth, and some babies were born with very low birth weight or stillborn. The authors conclude that the risks come from social and health-service conditions as well as biological immaturity, and call for targeted antenatal, birth and postnatal care for pregnant teens.
Key points
- Prevalence of pregnancies among the patients reviewed was 5.18%; average age was 17 years, with 67% aged 18 to 19.
- 47% were school girls, and 40% had an education level not above secondary school.
- 52% attended at least four prenatal visits; 98% had no pathology during pregnancy.
- 90% had natural births and the rest had C-sections; 26% had acute fetal distress, 19% had a narrow pelvis, and 26% had a post-partum perineal tear.
- 15% of babies had very low birth weight, 4% had an Apgar score below 7, three were stillborn and perinatal mortality was 1.09%.
Limitations
This is a retrospective, descriptive study from a single hospital, with no comparison group of older mothers, so it cannot show how much of the risk is due to age compared with socioeconomic or health-service factors. The document does not name the country; the hospital's location in Kara suggests Togo, but this is not stated in the text.
Abstract
Background: Pregnancies and childbirths previously widely accepted among teen girls are universally frowned upon these days owing to the health hazards they pose to young mothers and their newly- borns. The World Health Organization estimates that a teenage mother has a 50% chance of dying during childbirth. The purpose of this study is to analyse the epidemiological and clinical aspects and to carry out a diagnosis and prognosis of teenage births at the Mother and Child SOS Hospital. Method: The study was carried out over a five-year period extending from January 2018 to December 2021 covering descriptive and retrospective aspects of teenage girls aged from 10 to 19 years at the child and mother SOS hospital Results: The prevalence of pregnancies among the patients under review was 5.18%. The average age of the teens involved was 17 years with 67% aged between 18/19 years. 47% of the group was made up of school girls with a level of education not exceeding secondary school for 40% of them. 52% of the patients attended at least four prenatal examinations and 98% of the patients did not develop any pathology during their pregnancies. 90 % of them had natural births and the rest delivered their child through C-sections. 26% of the mothers endured acute fetal distress and 19% suffered from narrow pelvis. The main maternal complication was post-partum tear of the perineum among 26% of the mothers. 15% of the babies had very low birth weight. The Apgar score was below 7 for 4% of the newborns at the first and fifth minute. Three babies were still born and the rate of perinatal mortality was 1.09%. Conclusion: There is clear evidence of existing of risks relating to precocious pregnancies and child births among teens but they seem to occur as much as a result of unfavorable socioeconomic and sanitary determinants as from factors of biological immaturity. The prevention of these obstetrical risks point to the need to pay more attention to the pregnant teen through the provision of adequate and specifically targeted prenatal, perinatal and postnatal care.