ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: This study is designed to help pregnancy and delivery of mid-teenager mothers by analyzing the clinical features of pregnancy and delivery of mid-teenager mothers ranging from 13 to 16 years old. METHODS: This study includes 77 mothers aged 16 years and younger among the 3,863 mothers who delivered in our hospital from January 1998 to December 2005. We selected 100 mothers who aged between 17 and 19 years, 100 mothers who aged between 20 and 29 years as control groups respectively during the same period and statistical analysis is applied to compare the results. RESULTS: In this study, mid-teenagers constitutes 1.99% of all pregnant women. The number of antenatal care, the number of women experienced abortion, and age of menarche were significantly low in the mid-teenager mothers. Especially, the risks of anemia and meconium staining were significantly higher and the rate of cesarean section was significantly lower than those of the mothers in twenties. The risks of prematurity, low birth weight infant, preterm labor, and birth canal injury were higher than those of control groups, but there were no significant differences in three groups. CONCLUSION: Mid-teenager mothers were known to be high risk mothers in obstetrics due to immaturity in physics and low socioeconomic status. However, the risks can be decreased by adequate prenatal care, sufficient nourishment and maintenance of good habits based on medical and socioeconomic supports.