Data suggest that pregnant teenagers are
more likely than adult women to suffer
adverse medical and obstetric outcomes,
such as hypertensive disease, anemia, infection,
and depression, during pregnancy
and may continue to have consequences,
such as depression later in life,
delayed or discontinued education, or
increased use of public assistance. Age
younger than 17 years is associated with
increased risk for preterm birth of 1.5-
1.9 times.
Prenatal care may decrease adverse
pregnancy outcomes for teenage pregnantwomen by reducing risk factors through
education and social support. Teenage and
adult mothers probably differ in their access
to and utilization of prenatal care. Our
objective in this study was to determine
whether inadequate prenatal care is associated
with increased risk for preterm birth
among adolescents.