Teenage Pregnancy and Its Adverse Obstetric and Perinatal Outcomes at Lemlem Karl Hospital, Tigray, Ethiopia, 2018

INTRODUCTION: One of the major public health issues across the whole world these days is teenage pregnancy which is defined as being pregnant in the age ranging from 13–19 years. About 11% of all births which occurred worldwide accounted for girls aged 15 to 19 years. From these, 95% teenage deliveries occur in low- and middle-income countries. World health 2014 statistics show that complications during pregnancy and childbirth are the second cause of death for 15–19-year-old girls globally. The aim of this study was to determine adverse obstetrical and perinatal outcomes of teenage pregnancy among deliveries at Lemlem Karl General Hospital, Tigray, Ethiopia, 2018. RESULT: This study result showed that 17.5% of the teenagers and 6.8% of the adults deliver low birth weight neonates. From the total teenage mothers, about thirty-five (11.3%) of them had developed pregnancy-induced hypertension, whereas about thirteen (4.2%) of adults develop pregnancy-induced hypertension. Regarding cesarean delivery, forty (12.9%) of those teenage mothers deliver by a cesarean section while 58 (18%) of the adult mothers deliver by cesarean delivery. Teenage pregnancy was significantly associated with adverse obstetric and perinatal outcomes, a cesarean delivery (AOR: 0.57; 95% CI, 0.36–0.90), episiotomy (AOR: 2.01; 95% CI, 1.25–3.39), and low birth weight (AOR: 2.22; 95% CI, 1.13–4.36), and premature delivery were 2.87 (1.49–5.52). This study shows that adverse obstetric and perinatal outcomes were significantly associated with teenagers than adult mothers. Therefore, giving health education on focused ANC is very important to bring change to the teenager at this study area.