Pregnancy outcomes of Bedouin teenagers in Southern Israel

Pregnancy outcomes of Bedouin teenagers in southern Israel

Objectives: To determine whether young maternal age is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes in the Bedouin population, where teen pregnancy is culturally acceptable and prenatal care available.

Methods: Study population included all singleton primipara deliveries of Bedouins parturients aged 15-24 years between 1989 and 2005 in southern Israel. Data were obtained from the perinatal database of Soroka University Medical Center where all births in the region take place. Maternal characteristics and obstetric outcomes of teenage parturients (15-17, 18-19 years) were compared to that of parturients age 20-24 years.

Results: Of 13,786 deliveries 39.7% were of teenage mothers. Higher proportion of early teenage mothers (15-17 years) had no prenatal care compared to the 20-24 age group (21.9 % and 12.4 % respectively, p<0.001). Rates of preterm delivery (<37 weeks) were significantly higher only in the early teenage group compared with the 20-24 years group 13.9% and 10.6% respectively (OR=1.36, 95% CI 1.16-1.6). Maternal age was not associated with perinatal mortality and low birthweight (<2500g). In a multivariate analysis, lack of prenatal care (LOPC), and the interaction between LOPC and early teenage (age 15-17) were found to be independent risk factors for preterm delivery (OR=1.3 95% CI 1.1-1.52, OR=1.7 95% CI 1.2-2.42 respectively). Young maternal age by itself was not an independent risk factor for preterm delivery.

Conclusions:Prenatal care modifies the association between young maternal age and preterm delivery, thus interventions leading to wide utilization of prenatal care need to be designed and implemented