Pregnancy performance of Nigerian women aged 16 years and below, as seen in Ibadan, Nigeria.

A review of eighty-four women aged 16 years and below who gave birth at the University College Hospital, Ibadan during the period 1978-1982 has shown the majority of the patients to be unemployed women from a low socio-economic class. There is a strong tendency to lack of antenatal care in this group of women. Pregnancy and delivery were complicated by a higher than usual incidence of pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) and foeto-pelvic disproportion. A high perinatal mortality rate is noted and this poor result is related to the deficit in perinatal care the women received. Maternal mortality showed no significant difference compared with that obtained for all other maternity patients but a high morbidity rate, related mainly to PIH and foeto-pelvic disproportion, was found. Despite the undesirable social effects of teenage pregnancies, apart from the immature pelvic size, no definite biological reason could be adduced for the noted differences in their performance when compared to the total hospital maternity patients. We believe that differences in reports on teenage pregnancies may be due to differences in socio-cultural and educational standards of the various groups studied.