Teenage pregnancy--causes and concerns

Adolescent pregnancy is alarmingly common in India. These young girls face considerable health risks due to higher maternal and perinatal mortality. Early child bearing is not only a health problem for mother and child but is also associated with serious socio-economic and demographic implications as well. In developing countries 20% to 60% of young women's pregnancies and births are unintended, most coming sooner than planned. In India some demographers have estimated that if marriages were postponed from the age of 16 to 20 years, the number of births would decrease by 20 to 30 per-cent. That is the reason one of the socio-demographic goals set by national population policy, 2000 is to promote delayed marriages for girls, not earlier than age of 18 years and preferably after 20 years of age. It is important to maximise utilisation of prenatal, intranatal and postnatal care services among adolescent mothers. Lastly, it is important to improve the heamoglobin status and nutrition and empower our girls by educating them and making them aware of disadvantages of anaemia, early marriage and also of legal laws against teenage marriages.