The Health and Social Consequences of Teenage Childbearing

Abstract

The proportion of teenage girls becoming pregnant is increasing the proportion of total births which are being born to women aged 15-19 is increasing and the proportion of out-of-wedlock births to teenagers is increasing. Nearly 60% of all births to 15-19 year olds are conceived out of wedlock and 27% are born out of wedlock. For both black and white teenagers stillbirths deaths in the 1st month and deaths during the 1st year are greater than for women in their 20s. For white teens the rates are twice those of women in their 20s; for blacks 1 1/2 times. This reflects the higher infant death rates for black women at all age groups. Maternal mortality low birth-weight babies complications of pregnancy such as toxemia prolonged labor and iron-deficiency anemia and defective infants are all more common among teenagers. Lack of prenatal care and poor diets play as great a part as physical immaturity for the late teens. More distressing is the social aspect of teenage childbearing. The teenage mother often discontinues h er education has another child quickly and is locked into a poverty syndrome. Teenage marriages break up faster than other marriages and teenage marriages in which the bride was pregnant at time of marriage have the highest divorce rate of all. The only bright note comes from a survey in Japan which shows that women who have their 1st baby before age 18 have 1/3 less chance of breast cancer than women who have their 1st baby after age 35. In fact not until after age 40 is the life and health of both mother and fetus in greater danger than it is in the teen-age pregnancy. If all births to women under 18 were eliminated the population would be 5% smaller in 50 years than if these rates remain constant. If all teenage births were eliminated the net reproduction rate would be reduced from 1.16 to just over the stationary value of 1.00.