Risk of Low Birth Weight Infants in Teenage Pregnancy

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Having a low birth weight (LBW) baby can cause emotional, social and financial stress for the family. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A cross sectional study, of 1-year duration, was conducted in department of gynecology and obstetrics GSL Medical College and General hospital. Universal sampling method was employed and every antenatal woman with the age of 15-19 years were registered in department of gynecology and obstetrics GSL Medical college and General hospital from June2013 to July 2014 were included as study participants. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 238 pregnant teenage subjects with in 34weeks of gestational age were included in the study. After the delivery of teenage pregnant subjects, babies with only live birth are included. Statistical Analysis: Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 20. Chi-square test was performed to find the significant association among the teenage mothers, low birth weight of the babies and causes of low birth weight of the babies. P value < 0.05 was considered as statically significant. RESULTS: Totally there are 123 babies were born with normal birth weight with 51.7% and 115 babies were born with low birth weight with 48.3% when compared with total number of babies born (238).Subjects born to teenage mothers were statistically associated with low birth weight of the babies. i.e., p=0.001 and causes of low birth weight of the babies were also statistically associated with Teenage mothers. i.e., p=0.003. CONCLUSIONS: More numbers of babies with low birth weight were born to teenage mothers as the age of the mother progresses the rate of low birth weight was decreased. So, it is advisable to do marriage for a girl according to the Indian law (>21 years) in order to prevent risks that occur to mother and to newborn.