London, July 10 (IANS) Teenage mothers are more likely to give birth prematurely and have underweight babies, study shows.
These teenagers are 93 percent more likely than adult women to give birth early.
Researchers at the University College Cork in Ireland, who conducted the survey of more than 55,000 births, called for more health and sex education to prevent the 'biological immaturity' of young mothers from damaging their babies' prospects.
Premature babies generally defined as those born earlier that 37 weeks in pregnancy are more susceptible to a range of medical problems and are at greater risk of dying in the first year of life.
Ali Khashan, who carried out the research, said the results indicated that some teenage girls were failing to receive proper medical advice after becoming pregnant and that young mothers tended to slip through the net of the health services when they had a second child.
'It is possible that the increased risk of poor pregnancy outcome is related to biological immaturity,' said Khashan.
'It is also possible that the increased risk of poor pregnancy outcome in the second teenage pregnancy is related to numerous complicating factors such as greater social deprivation and less prenatal care,' he added.
