Pregnancy in adolescent mothers. Study in the district of Beja 1986-1991.

Abstract

A retrospective and contextual study of pregnancy and delivery in adolescent mothers aged nineteen years or less has been developed in the area of the Beja Health Sub-Authority, with delivery between January 1, 1986 and December 31, 1987 and between January 1, 1988 and December 31, 1991. A universe of 216 young mothers in those conditions, whose complete identification was possible, were interviewed and asked to answer four questionnaires concerning surveillance of the pregnancy and the delivery, the family and psychosocial aspects, data on the child's father and data on the child's first year of life. The results obtained point to the fact that pregnancy in adolescents, in the studied universe, is well assumed and socially well accepted, even by the mothers' families of origin and viewed by the adolescent mothers as an instrument in their process of becoming autonomous in a social setting that offers no alternatives for personal development. The pregnancy, in those young mothers, does not appear to have a significantly higher biological, psychological or social risk than the known identical risks in older mothers. Finally, the results suggest that, even with the offer of quite good health services, it is necessary to review their organization and accessibility to those services in the form of a more well defined adaptation to this very specific kind of public.