[Social consequences of birth in adolescents]

234 Austrian women gave birth to a child in the years 1972--74 before the age of 18. 95 of them were invited to an interview and interrogated about changes in their life-situation due to the birth. The general attitude was, if they could choose again the date of the first pregnancy they would prefer after 20 years. No correlation was found between early menarche and early sexual intercourse. For 60 of the women pregnancy was the reason for their marriage. Most of the young women had experience with contraceptives, but did not use them for different reasons. After the birth of the child most of them took the pill, but there are 11 women left without any contraception, exposing themselves to the risk of a repeat pregnancy. Young age at birth has an impact upon pre-vocational training: either through interruption of the training or through total discontinuation of their education. A possible solution of the present unsatisfactory situation for young pregnant women and their social problems are interdisciplinary projects for the guidance of adolescents in some centers in the USA.