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  • Title: Maternal age, social class, and the obstetric performance of teenagers.
    Author: Roosa MW.
    Journal: J Youth Adolesc; 1984 Aug; 13(4):365-74. PubMed ID: 12313465.
    Abstract:
    The purpose of the study is to examine the interaction of social class, maternal age, and obstetric and neonatal outcome. It has been widely reported that teenage mothers experience more complictions of labor and delivery as well as higher rates of prematurity and los birthweight infants than women 20-30 years old. However, a few studies have suggested that birth complications are related to social class, not mternal age. The data for this study were collected from the medical records of 2 hospitals in a large metropolitan area in the southwestern US. 1 of the hospitals handles the overwhelming majority of all births to low-income families in the area. The other hospital serves a middle class clientele. All nontwin 1st births that occurred in these 2 hospitals in 1980 to women between 15 and 30 years old were included in the data for this study. When the samples of primiparous low-income and middle-income teenagers (15019 years) were compared with samples of primiparous low-income and middle-income women (20-30 years), the reported differences by maternal age did not emerge. Instead, the results support the notion that there is a complex interaction among social class, maternal age, and obstetric performance. 1) The 4 groups of mothers differed significantly on only 5 of the 12 measures of obstetric performance or birth outcome used. 2) The widely reported differences in prematurity rate and birthweight by maternal age did not emerge, although there was a nonsignificant trend favoring the older mothers on the prematurity rate. 3) 1 or both groups of teenage mothers performed as well as, or better than, either group of older mothers on 4 of the 5 measures that differentiated the groups. 4) only the infant birthweight data exhibited a trend that favored the middle-class mothers, regardless of age group. Finally, the analysis suggests that the group most likely to be at risk was the older, low-income primiparous women. Nothing in these data support the notion that primiparous teenage mothers, per se, sould be considered an at-risk group as far as obstetric performance is concerned. Youth itself is not an accurate predictor of obstetric risk, nor does it protect mothers from the hazards of childbirth. It is suggested that risk assessment based on social class or maternal age alone is too simplistic to be useful.
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