[The wish for a baby and pregnancy in adolescence]

During the Summer of 1987, interviews were carried out with 33 pregnant adolescents followed at the Nancy regional maternity hospital, in order to improve the knowledge of the present determinants of pregnancy in teens. These adolescents were mostly French, born in unfavourable classes; virtually all had school failure and no professional qualification. In one third of them, pregnancy was accidental and could appear as a further social handicap for these isolated and unemployed adolescents. However, two thirds of these future mothers declared that they had desired their pregnancy, most often within a steady and gratifying couple relationship.