6 CONSEQUENCES OF PREGNANCY IN ADOLESCENCE - GEOGRAFÍA - 2025

The consequences of pregnancy in adolescence or at an early age occur mainly in physical, psychological, emotional health, and in personal and work relationships.

Pregnancy in adolescence or at an early age requires a comprehensive intervention, which sets aside the traditional approach that views pregnancy only as a risk to the physical health of the adolescent and the baby.

Adolescence was considered for a long time only as a transition between childhood and adulthood, without devoting greater interest to the profound biological, psychological, social and emotional changes that make this stage an instance that requires us to dedicate our attention to it.

Why pay attention to teenage pregnancy?

Biological, psychological and social maturity has evolved, progressively separating over the years. Biologically, a marked decrease in the age of menarche or first menstruation has been observed, which has allowed an adolescent to become a mother at ages as early as 11 years.

Psychosocial maturity, on the other hand, has tended to shift towards the third decade of life. On the other hand, it is necessary to take into account the complex preparation that an adolescent goes through to reach the limits of physical development and act autonomously in their affective, social and work relationships.

Early pregnancy can influence this physical and psychosocial development, preventing it from occurring properly. Although each adolescent is different, it generally takes time and especially some experiences to develop fully.

What has changed in modern times?

In Prehistory, women had children at 15 years of age. In ancient times it was normal at an older age, around 18. Until recently the normal time was 20-25. And nowadays, especially in more developed countries, one is a father around 30 years, even up to 40.

Economic difficulties, lack of housing and money to support children, prevent them from being had at an early age. On the other hand, new customs - free time and fun are valued more - and new fertilization techniques allow the age at which one has children to be postponed.

However, there is a part of women who for different reasons have their first child in adolescence. Pregnancy bursts into the lives of adolescents at times when they have not yet reached physical and mental maturity, sometimes under adverse circumstances, in the midst of nutritional deficiencies or other diseases, and in a family environment that is not receptive to accepting and protecting it.

In general, when figures on adolescent pregnancy are given, information is used on children born alive to mothers under 20 years of age. These statistics on pregnant women are no longer significant if we consider that they only include full-term pregnancies with a live-born child.

Pregnancies that do not come to term for medical reasons or as a result of an abortion are not usually established in statistics, therefore, the emotional and psychological components that can affect the adolescent as a result of this are ignored.

Statistics

According to WHO data:

• 1 million girls under the age of 15 give birth annually, especially in third world or second world countries. In girls aged 15 to 19 there are 16 million births.
• Among girls aged 15 to 19, complications in pregnancy are the second leading cause of death in the world.
• Annually, 3 million young people between 20-24 years old perform dangerous abortions in an unprofessional way.
• Newborn children of adolescent mothers have a higher risk of dying than those of young people between 20-24 years of age.

According to the Pan American Health Organization:

• Among OECD countries (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), Mexico is the first in adolescent pregnancy.
• Teen pregnancy rates in Latin America and the Caribbean continue to be the second highest in the world, estimated at 66.5 births for every 1,000 girls between the ages of 15 and 19, and are only surpassed by those in sub-Saharan Africa.
• In South America, Bolivia and Venezuela have the highest rates. In the Caribbean, it is the Dominican Republic and Guyana with the highest estimated adolescent fertility rates. In Central America the first are Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama.

Main consequences of pregnancy in adolescence

In this context, studies speak of a series of possible psycho-emotional consequences that adolescents go through in the face of an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy:

1-Damages to psychological health

The emotional health of the pregnant adolescent can be considerably affected, since pregnancy is generally assumed in difficult conditions and far from a truly free and responsible option:

- Affective deprivation and mistreatment by the family (thus pregnancy becomes an option to have someone who loves them)

-Stress, anxiety.

- Result of rape or incest

- Pressure from your partner

- Leave to chance whether or not to get pregnant

- Let your partner decide whether or not to use a contraceptive method

These possibilities and others, added to the difficulty of adapting to a new situation for which you do not feel prepared, may end up affecting your psychological health.

The support of your partner, your family and society is crucial so that the emotional impact is minimal.

2-Drop your studies

Both early pregnancy and motherhood limit or impede opportunities to continue their studies, and lower the expectations of the new mother and her family for the future.

Sometimes there may be an environment of deprivation and little family support, which has a double consequence: on the one hand, the adolescent with less family support has a higher risk of becoming pregnant, and on the other hand, the adolescent mother has less possibilities to achieve a high level of schooling.

3-Difficulties in the professional field

The economic commitment of early pregnancy for the subsistence of the adolescent herself and that of her sons or daughters; since the possibility of work for a pregnant adolescent or for whom she was already a mother is very low.

In this aspect we must also include the discriminatory practices that still exist against women in the labor market. Consequently, this leads the adolescent mother to assume a continuous situation of dependency.

Sometimes, this situation is aggravated if he lives with his partner, also unemployed, in the home of the family of origin of one of them, and can trigger situations of tension, and even abuse and intra-family violence.

4-Difficulties in social / couple relationships

With no income of her own, little education and little chance of getting it, social and personal opportunities are significantly limited for the adolescent mother.

This leads her to have few possibilities to satisfy the needs of her children and to fight for their rights in her relationship with her partner or family and in front of the State, reducing her opportunities for personal and social development.

On the other hand, relationship problems or even breakups often occur.

5-Sudden changes in the life plan

Many times, the life project of the pregnant adolescent is truncated or interrupted.

Juvenile pregnancy tends to remove the young mother from her environment: they lose their partner or their family if there is rejection by one or both of them, they lose their peer group at school, they change their recreational spaces and their presence in community. The life process is suddenly altered, becoming a hostile event.

Although we admit that many adolescents do not have a defined life project when they become pregnant, this unplanned or desired pregnancy limits the construction of that vital project.

6-Complications during pregnancy

Maternal mortality is one of the leading causes of death in adolescents and young women between the ages of 15 and 24 in the Americas region. For example, in 2014, about 1,900 adolescents and young people died as a result of health problems during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum.

Globally, the risk of maternal death doubles for mothers younger than 15 years in low- and middle-income countries.

Conclusions

In view of this, the timely consideration of the factors that we have mentioned is as necessary as the need to facilitate access to information and care in responsible sexual and reproductive health.

In the same way, it is acting on the economic, political and cultural conditions that surround adolescent pregnancy and eliminating the barriers that psychosocially affect many adolescents who experience all this without full awareness of the magnitude of what they face, and even accept it as factors inherent to the condition of being a woman.

References

1. Accelerating progress toward reducing adolescent pregnancy in Latin America and the Caribbean
2. PAHO / Adolescent Health Program