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  • Title: How are young maternal age and primiparity related to infant health?
    Author: Haaga JG.
    Journal: Malays J Reprod Health; 1989 Jun; 7(1):27-40. PubMed ID: 12342396.
    Abstract:
    This article is an abridgement of a background paper for the Working Group on the Health Consequences of Contraceptive Use and Controlled Fertility of the US National Academy of Sciences Committee on Population. The possible biomedical mechanisms connecting young maternal age and primarity with infant mortality are reviewed. Most of the data concerning causes of death comes from small clinical studies or special purpose population studies. Low birth weight is associated with a higher risk of mortality, morbidity, and developmental problems in infants. Infants born to young mothers in the US are at risk of low birth weight, prematurity, and perinatal death. In 5 Latin American sites, infants born to mothers who were less than 20 years old were between 1.3 and 1.9 times as likely to die as newborn infants as were those born to mothers 20 to 24 years old. The risk was about as large for postneonatal deaths, too. Primiparity and young maternal age could be associated with low birth weight and infant deaths for many reasons. These include: 1) mother-fetus competition for macronutrients; 2) micronutrient deficiencies; 3) infections; 4) pregnancy-induced hypertension; 5) malaria; and 6) delivery complications. The mechanisms that most affect infant health and for which there is the strongest evidence are pregnancy-induced hypertension, intrauterine growth retardation, and placental malaria. There appears to be a connection between age and primiparity.
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