The effect of maternal age, parity, and prenatal care on perinatal outcome in adolescent mothers.

Maternal age and prenatal care were found to influence the risk for having a small-for-gestational age infant in white adolescent mothers who had both one and two previous live births. However, poor care exerted a relatively stronger affect than young age for primiparous mothers, while the reverse was found for multiparous mothers. Moreover, for women with first births, there was an interaction between variables in that early prenatal care promoted better pregnancy outcome for younger teenagers than for older teens or adults. These results indicate that the perinatal risks of adolescent pregnancy are affected by both physiologic factors and prenatal care.