The financial costs of teenage pregnancy were estimated
at over $11 billion dollars in the United States in 2008 (Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). In addition
to societal costs, teenage pregnancy is associated with a host
of negative consequences for both these mothers and their
children. These sequelae are far-reaching and encompass
medical, psychological, and economic domains. Adolescent
pregnancy carries increased risk of specific obstetric complications,
including anemia and hypertension (Kramer &
Lancaster, 2010), unsafe abortion, postpartum hemorrhage,
depression, and maternal death (World Health Organization
[WHO], 2013). Independent of known confounding factors
such as socioeconomic status, neonatal outcomes are poorer
in adolescent pregnancies with higher rates of neonatal
death, premature birth, low birth weight, and low APGAR
scores