Obstetric Complications and Adverse Birth Outcomes among Adolescent and Adult Pregnant Women in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Background and Objective: The current study aimed to determine the association of maternal age and obstetric complications and adverse birth outcomes among the adolescent and adult pregnant women.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving about 150 pregnant women (75 adolescent and 75 adult) who were purposively selected from three maternity centers of Dhaka city. All of them were primigravida experiencing their third trimester of pregnancy. They were interviewed twice (first visit during third trimester and second visit after delivery) with a semi-structured questionnaire. Statistical analysis was done by IBM SPSS Statistics version 20.0. Adjusted odds ratios were achieved by conducting binomial logistic regression analysis.

Results: The mean age of the adolescent pregnant girls and adult pregnant women were 16.54±2.38 and 25.23±5.67 years of age, respectively. It was explored that adolescent pregnant girls had higher risks for anemia, preeclampsia, eclampsia, severe fever, jaundice, abnormal position of the baby and urinary problems during gestation. On the contrary, they were observed with lower risks for gestational diabetes, excessive bleeding and leakage of amniotic fluid during pregnancy. During delivery, adolescent group had higher risks for excessive bleeding and placental abruption. Findings of the study also showed that pregnant adolescents had higher risks of various adverse birth outcomes like preterm delivery, still birth, small for gestational age (SGA), very low birth weight (LBW), and low birth weight (LBW).

Conclusion: Adolescent pregnancy in Dhaka city had augmented the risk of obstetric complications during pregnancy, during delivery as well as adverse birth outcomes.