Maternal and foetal outcomes among teenage mothers in the selected hospitals of Kathmandu

Background: Globally, pregnancy and childbirth complications are the major cause of death among 15 to 19 year teenaged mothers. Teenage pregnancy and childbirth is a common health problem in industrialized as well as the middle and low income countries. Teenage pregnancy is also a major social and health problem in Nepal and which occurs two times higher in rural areas than in urban areas. The purpose of this study was to explore maternal and foetal outcomes among teenage mothers regarding teenage pregnancy and childbirth. Methods: Descriptive exploratory study design was used. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the hospital and purposive sampling was used for the selection of the study population and total population was 245 teenage mothers delivered at hospital.Written consent was obtained from each respondent. Semi structured interview schedule was used for data collection and collecting data was analysis by using SPSS 20. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 18.04 years ± 1.018. The study found that ethnicity; numbers of sibling, education and respondents knowledge are the most aggravating factors for early marriage, pregnancy and childbirth. Early teenage mothers faced social as well as health problems in relation to late teen mothers. Antenatal visit has significant association (p-value=0.017) with health problems faced during pregnancy. Neonates born from early teenage mother were more prone to being low birth weight than late teen mother (p value=0.006). Conclusion: Teenage pregnancy and childbirth can be minimized by advocating girl’s education and increasing awareness among parents and girl child herself. Regular Antenatal clinic visit during pregnancy help to improve the pregnancy outcomes.