Adolescent Pregnancy: Causes And Consequences

Adolescent pregnancy: Causes and consequences

Pregnancy

“Period between conception (fertilization of an ovule by a sperm) and childbirth; During this period the fertilized ovule develops in the uterus. In humans, pregnancy lasts approximately 288 days ”(NCI, I. 2018)

Adolescence

From sociology, there is a more or less generalized consensus, which sees youth as a historical construction closely associated with the prolongation of school life and democratization of education. ‘Adolence is that field open to education, that time of social latency that creates the evolution of modern societies’ (Philibert and Wiel, 1998: 25)

Teenage pregnancy

Every year 13 million children under 20 years old are born: 90 % (11.7 million) in developing countries and 10 % in developed countries (1.3 million). Both realities are hard despite the differences of each context, but in sub -Saharan Africa – in Niger and the Congo, among other countries of the continent – there is 40 % possibilities of a teenage pregnancy. In Niger, for example, 53 % of pregnant women were already married before the age of 18; Something very similar occurs in the Indian subcontinent, where early marriage in rural areas is the main cause. On the contrary, East Asia does not suffer the same problem: South Korea, Singapore or Japan have rates of 1 to 3 pregnant women for every 1.000 women (NGO Save The Children, 2018)

Also, adolescent mothers babies face a higher risk of death that is estimated at 50% according to WHO (2014).

Maternity in adolescents under 16 is an important maternal mortality factor that exceeds women between 20 and 30 years, being the estimated figures in 70.000 deaths per year. 90% of these deaths occur in developing places. But the consequences of pregnancy and childbirth can be very serious, developing serious sequels such as chronic diseases or life disability given its degree of immaturity in physical, psychological and social development, being able to prevent 74% (data of the WHO, 2011).

In Chile, by 2004, according to data from the Department of Information and Statistics of the Ministry of Health (DEIS), of the 33.507 children born, children of mothers between 15 and 19 years, only 88 percent% were firstborn.

In Ecuador, two out of three teenagers between 15 and 19, without education, are mothers or are pregnant for the first time (Endemain, 2004).

Worldly there is an excessive population increase, particularly in Latin America, where the increase in reproduction looks more frequent in economically committed and dependent young women. (Minneapolis: Willey; 2002)

Early pregnancy has undeniable sociocultural and psychological consequences with high personal, educational, family and social cost (García, Silva, Ortiz, Pulliquitin, Pavón, 2017). It is also considered a public health problem; Since 11% of all births in the world are women under 19, it is explicit in the World Health Organization report (WHO).

According to 2014 data from this agency, about 16 million adolescents aged 15 to 19 and one million under 15 years of age give birth annually, the complications in pregnancy being the second cause of death, in developing countries.(WHO)

For Leo Bryant, pregnancy in adolescence "can disturb access to education and other life opportunities". And according to Peter Bloss, between 19 and 22 is the age considered late adolescence, stage in which high emotional lability, lack of integration and maturation of emotional, volitional and action processes persists.

Worldly there is an excessive population increase, particularly in Latin America, where the increase in reproduction looks more frequent in economically committed and dependent young women. (Willey; 2002).

Causes of teenage pregnancies

It can be seen that thanks to the availability and easy access to safe contraceptive methods, adolescents have suffered a loss to the fear of unwanted pregnancy, which as a consequence of a high number of promiscuity and an increase in infections of sexually transmitted sex. It has also been seen as an contraceptive method to monitor the menstrual cycle and the recognition of fertile days to prevent or not a pregnancy, where a large number of people did not know or use this method correctly.

In an investigation carried out to adolescents and their parents in a city health area in Havana, it was shown that both parents and adolescents could not rightly identify the fertile days of women within their menstrual cycle (Peláez Mendoza, 2003).

It is globally accepted that more than 50 % of adolescents pregnancies occur in the 6 months after their first sexual relationship, so we can understand everything important that is the knowledge of the use of contraceptives in this age group (compound med. 2003; 5 (1): 7 -18).

According to some studies, the main determinants involved in adolescent pregnancies are essentially produced by forced sexual relations, early marriage and/or sexual abuse linked to others of individual, social, cultural, family, family and political sphere. (Mendoza, Claros, Peñaranda, 2016)

Adolescent pregnancy risks

One of the risks established in the prematureness of gestation is early menarche (Bendezú, Espinoza, Bendezú-Pequepe, Smith, and Huamán-Gutierrez, 2015) that entails anticipated and/or unwanted sexual relations, which culminates in many cases in pregnancies unwanted, undergoing a large number of dangerous abortions, being one more, of the serious consequences of teenage pregnancy. According to WHO data (2014), it is estimated that about 3 million girls between 15 and 19 are risking illegal abortions.

In addition to the previous paragraph data, another consequences of early sexual relations and the lack of sexual health education is the propagation of sexually transmitted diseases. It is estimated that cases of sexually transmitted infections in adolescents reach 300 million each year. (Cortes, Chacón, Alvarez, and Sotonavarro, 2015)

Impact

Biological and obstetric

• Preeclampsia, eclampsia, threat of premature delivery, chronic anemia, vagina tears, vulva, neck and perineum, infection and puerperal hemorrhage are usually factors with a high incidence in adolescent pregnant women, chronic anemia being a predominant factor in adolescents with early age , perhaps due to its biological and functional immaturity accompanied by insufficient nutrition and an increase in nutritional requirements. (Riscarle, Ribero, Rivas, Cardozo and Guevara, 2008).
• There are a large number of premature births since babies are born before week 37 and comes with a low weight because the mother’s body was not prepared and the uterus is not fully developing. Also as a consequence young mothers have children with different health problems and developmental disorders.
• Mothers under 15 years of age are higher probability of having babies with malformations.
• Incompatibility Pelvic Cephal. (Bendezú, Espinoza, Bendezú-Qispe, Smith and Huamán-Gutierrez, 2015).

Psychological

• Since they are prepared to be mothers, young women have few knowledge about how childbirth, postpartum and all infant care will be.
• They must leave their studies which leads not to have enough resources to subsist and have a limited social life.
• At the time of knowing the news about their pregnancy, young women feel fear of their family circle and leads them to be rejected, many can even be hit or abandoned to their fate.

Social

• One of the first socio-cultural results that occurs in teenage pregnancy is school abandonment caused by different determinants of the family environment such as home destructuring by separation of parents or abandonment of one of them, shame and ultimately due to obstetric problems. (Baeza, Póo, Vasquez, Muñoz, and Vallejos, 2007).
• They have low resources and socio-economic problems since several young mothers must face pregnancy without the support of their child’s partner or father, which leads them to continue living in their family nucleus and depending on them.
• Society judges them and rejects them.
• Few possibilities of finding employment, suffer abuses and discrimination.

Teenage pregnancy in Ecuador

Ecuador is one of the Latin American countries with the highest number of adolescent pregnancy cases (between 15 and 19 years old). 1 in 5 women between 15 and 19 years old are already a mother, and 1 in 20 is between 12 and 14 years old. In the last 10 years instead of accompanying the tendency to reduce fertility rates among adult women, the social phenomenon increased 2.3 points. Currently, Ecuador records 122.301 teenage mothers, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), 75% of them belong to the economically inactive population.

In Guayas, Pichincha, Manabí, the rivers and emeralds are the provinces that concentrate the largest number of teenage pregnancies nationwide. Until 2016 of the more 80,000 boys and girls born from mothers under 19, 20 548 were born in Guayas, 9 544 in Pichincha, 6 807 in Manabí, 5 744 in Los Ríos and 4 393 in Esmeraldas. (PUBLICAFM, 2018)

According to Minister Berenice Cordero, almost 40% of Ecuadorians already have an active sex life between 15 and 19 years. In addition, she catches her attention that practically 7% already has an active sex life before 15 years of age. That is, the precocity in this aspect is a factor that stimulates teenage pregnancy (Publicfm, 2018). In this you can present several factors that harm the adolescent’s environment, which are the following:

Factors that affect the family

Young people who become parents and even receive the support of their parents and can continue living in their own home, can better face taking care of a child, but what they do not take into account is the psychological imbalance that cause in the lives of their relatives since they without planning it have to take a certain degree of responsibility; And despite that they are not aware of a huge weight that is to bring a child to the world.

Factors that affect the community

The group of young mothers and their babies are a population with too many demands but that are not very productive or nothing productive, this means a great burden for society from the social and economic point of view. They can need public assistance, apart from which they can increase the overpopulation of a country and their poverty situation would increase.

According to (pregnancy in adolescence, 2018) is the maximum interrelation between psychism and the somatic is given in affectivity and only from the didactic point of view the affectivity can be divided into independent plots and whose main manifestations are:

• Anxiety.
• Moods or humor.
• Emotions.
• Feelings.
• Passions.

According to (WHO, 2018) gives some norms of prevention and reduction in negative deductions. The norms have suggestions of orders that countries could take with these six main objectives:

• compress the number of marriages before 18 years. (WHO, 2018)
• Promote understanding and livelihood in order to reduce pregnancies before 20 years. (WHO, 2018)
• increase the knowledge of the use of contraceptives in order to avoid involuntary pregnancies. (WHO, 2018)
• decrease the decision to have sex forced by adolescents. (WHO, 2018)
• limit abortions that are risky in adolescents. (WHO, 2018)
• Increase the use of the services provided by hospitals in births by adolescents. (WHO, 2018)

Conclusions

• Pregnancy in adolescents is very frequent in these times and this is giving a big problem in the country, since these ladies do not take into account the psychological, emotional and economic risks and damage that can cause their family and themselves.
• Pregnancy can also affect your academic performance being one of the factors of greatest influence on your performance and aptitude in class periods and also causes difficulties among family members.
• Young people now do not measure all the effects of their actions and less to bring a child to the world to which in many cases they will not be able to have a dignified and happy life. Sexual education and parental control should be encouraged, communication is key in everyone’s growth.
• Sex should cease to be a taboo subject, it must be treated freely to inform, precave.

Bibliography

• Baeza, p. V. (September 12, 2007). early pregnancy.
• CANCER, i. N. (September 13, 2018). National Cancer Institute. Obtained from the National Cancer Institute: https: // www.cancer.GOV/Spanish/Publications/Dictionary/Def/Pregnancy
• Pregnancy in adolescence. (February 23, 2018). Obtained from World Health Organization: https: // www.quien.INT/ES/NEWS-ROOM
• Folgado, a. C. (August 10, 2016). www.Guiainfantil.com. Obtained from www.Guiainfantil.com: https: // www.Guiainfantil.com/Blog/pregnancy/el-risgo-de-tan-un-Embarazo-Precoz-in-the-Adolescence/
• Folgado, a. C. (June 2, 2018). Guiainfantil.com. Obtained from Guiainfantil.com: https: // www.Guiainfantil.com/
• WHO. (2018). Obtained from teenage pregnancy: http: // www.WHO.com
• PUBLICAFM. (September 17, 2018). Adolescent pregnancy in Ecuador. Obtained from Publicafm: https: // www.PUBLICAFM.EC
• Nci, i. (September 13, 2018). Cancer Dictionary. Recovered from https: // www.cancer.GOV/Spanish/Publications/Dictionary/Def/Pregnancy