[Pregnancy and delivery in adolescents: characteristics and profile of 311 cases].
OBJECTIVE
Adolescent pregnancy is considered to be a high-risk situation in a large part of the world. The aim of this study is to assess the validity of this notion for Moroccan teenagers.


METHODS
From January 1999 to December 2000, there were 311 teenagers who gave birth in the "Les orangers" maternity hospital in Rabat, Morocco. We compared these adolescents with 155 women aged more than 18 years who delivered during the same period.


RESULTS
We were unable to demonstrate a high risk for complications among our adolescent population. The only statistically significant differences found between the two groups concerned use of contraception (22.4% for teenagers vs. 57.6%), traditional practices (6.1% vs. 1.93%), frequency of episiotomy (90% vs. 67.14%), instrumental extraction (37.32% vs. 27.14%), lower birth weight in teenagers (3074 g vs. 3199 g) and a higher rate of low birth weight in unmarried adolescents in comparison with married ones (23.3% vs. 9.6%).


CONCLUSIONS
Adolescent pregnancy in Morocco remains well accepted, particularly within the context of marriage.
Hamada
H
H
Service de Gynécologie-Obstétrique, France.
Zaki
A
A
Nejjar
H
H
Filali
A
A
Chraibi
C
C
Bezad
R
R
Alaoui
M Taher
MT
D000293:Adolescent; D003267:Contraception; D036861:Delivery, Obstetric / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D004841:Episiotomy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008423:Maternal Age; D009018:Morocco; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors