Teenage pregnancies have a number of problems:
According to Makinson C (1985)."The health consequences of teenage fertility". There is a higher risk that babies born from teenage mothers are born too early, or that they have a low weight at birth. The mothers may also encounter complications or difficulties at birth; they have a higher risk of anemia than mothers aged 20-24.
Teenage mothers may suffer from poor nutrition. This may lead of them having specific illnesses related to bad nutrition. Bad nutrition is a more marked problem of teenagers in developed countries. The World Health Organization estimates that the risk of death following pregnancy is twice as high for women between 15 and 19 years than for those between the ages of 20 and 24. The maternal mortality rate can be up to five times higher for girls aged between 10 and 14 than for women of about twenty years of age Illegal abortion also holds many risks for teenage girls.
Problems other than the age of the mother, such as poverty and social support also affect the outcome. It is important that teenage mothers can rely on the family and the state to help them cope, and educate their child. Teenage parents who can rely on family and community support, social services and child-care support are more likely to continue their education and get higher paying jobs as they progress with their education.
Being a young mother often affects education. Teen mothers are more likely to drop out of high school. Recent studies, though, have found that many of these mothers had already dropped out of school prior to becoming pregnant. One study in 2001 found that women who gave birth during their teens completed secondary-level schooling 10–12% as often and pursued post-secondary education 14–29% as often as women who waited until age 30.