Doctors at the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) here have expressed concern over the number of teenage pregnancy cases reported.
According to sources, out of over 50 deliveries happening in GRH on an average every day, nearly 10 per cent are related to early pregnancies.
Health experts noted that teenage pregnancy posed serious health hazards to expectant mothers and the children to be born.
The culturally rooted practice of early marriage due to socio-cultural and economic pressure and pre-marital sex are the causative factors of early pregnancies. While incidence of teenage pregnancy is high among those in rural areas, it is not so with the urban teenagers, they observed.
“Parents in rural areas marry their daughters off at an early age to prevent them from getting into a relationship with boys of other castes. They do it irrespective of the age their children belong to,” said P. Pavalam, an activist who runs a home for destitute women.
“On the other hand, girls hailing from broken families tend to go in search of love from outside the family and fall victim to early pregnancies due to lack of sex education,” she added.
Explaining the health risks associated with teenage pregnancy, a senior gynaecologist at GRH, said, “Pregnant teenagers are likely to develop complaints of anaemia, mal-presentation and blood pressure. In cases of unplanned pregnancy, the patient will undergo mental and physical trauma”.
It will lead to psychological disorder and affects the baby to be born, the doctor cautioned.
“The rate of stillbirth, low birth weight infants and late neonatal deaths are high among mothers below 18 years of age compared to others.”
