Nowadays, teenage pregnancy has really become a rising concern and therefore the knowledge various causes of teenage pregnancy have become crucial. Teenage pregnancy refers to pregnancy occurring in young girls, mostly in the range of age 13 to 17 years old.
Teenage pregnancy has been a life time social issue which in recent times has attracted attention, from the family and society at large. Most teenage pregnancies are products of caring relationships which they comprehended to make physical commitments.
However, in some traditional society, the idea of a single woman having babies that is, if a girl is not married and becomes pregnant is frowned at, she is seen as a disgrace both to herself and to her family. Currently, the case of single mother mostly among the teenagers have become so rampant that it now seems as an acceptable phenomenon.
Teenage period (between 13 and 19 years of age) is considered the developmental period or adolescence. Adolescent has been described as a person who is no longer a child but is not fully an adult. It is a period of time in which the child matures into an adult.
Below are some consequences of teenage pregnancy;
The consequences of this increase in teenage pregnancies are enormous for the young mothers, their babies and society at large. The girls themselves are more prone to a number of complications of pregnancy, including anemia, prolonged labour and toxemia as revealed by (McKenry, Wong, and Weincik, 1999).
Young mothers are 2 times likely to bear low-birth weight and premature babies, or 2 or 3 times more likely to have babies who die in their first year, or 2-4 times more likely to bear children with neurological defects (McKenry, 1999).
Abraham (1998) supported the above assertion that complications of teenage pregnancy include anemia, toxemias, urinary tract infection, contracted pelvic and excessive weight gain occur more frequently in teenage pregnancies than in general population.
According to Ayeni (1988) babies of teenage mothers have only 80% chance of being born healthy, and their low weight is probably one of the most important causes of infant mortality in the world.
Galas(1987) in support of the above assertion state that these babies are more likely to suffer from congenital abnormalities and increased susceptibility to infections and childhood unless than and babies born to health, physically matured mothers.
Finally, Olowre (1996) summarized the effect of teenage pregnancies among unmarried school girls as follows, drop outs, unwanted children highly numbered, drug abuse, high abortion rate, unskilled labour, increase in population, unbearable responsibilities, broken home and painful labour during birth.
The problem of teenage pregnancy and its effect on the unmarried mother is very enormous and frustrating and sometimes can lead to untimely death.
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