Teen-age pregnancy has health risks for both mother
and her baby and thus has implications for
maternal mortality (high blood pressure resulting f
rom pregnancy, uterine infection, unsafe abortion
and malaria) and neonatal mortality (higher rate of
pre-term births and low birth weight).
Adolescents aged less than 16 years face four times
the risk of maternal death than women aged in
their 20s, and the death rate of their neonates is
about 50% higher.
4
In Thailand in 2008, pregnancy-
related causes were by far the single most importan
t reason for hospitalization (23.7%) among
children 13-18 years of age.