Hospital-Based Perinatal Outcomes and Complications in Teenage Pregnancy in India (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Teenage pregnancy, a social problem distributed worldwide, has serious implications on maternal and child health, especially in the context of developing countries. In India, teenage pregnancy is an important public-health problem, although the national policy of the Government of India advocates the minimum legal age of marriage for girls to be 18 years. Data of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-3 revealed that 16% of women, aged 15-19 years, have already started childbearing. This proportion is the highest in the state of Jharkhand (28%), followed by West Bengal (25%) and Bihar (25%), all located in eastern India. A substantial proportion of young married girls is already malnourished. Nearly 47% of adolescent women have body mass index of less than 18.5, 11.4% are stunted, and half of them have anaemia (1). While there is a growing realization of the need to promote adolescent reproductive health, work done in this field is often inadequate.