[Teenage pregnancies in the Paarl hospital]

Of the 20 590 mothers delivered at the Paarl Hospital from the beginning of 1973 to the end of 1983, teenagers numbered 6 284 (30,51%). About 5% of all mothers were 16 years old or younger. No other country has such an alarming incidence of young teenage mothers, and no country can afford the vicious circle of socio-economic demands that will be generated by this catastrophe. Worst of all, the babies born are often defective at birth, with little chance of holding their own in life because of their subsequent inferior intellectual and somatic development. The demographic consequences are formidable.