Poor Pregnancy Outcomes among Adolescents in South Nyanza Region of Kenya

Monica A. Magadi, University of Southampton
David Omollo, African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)
Alfred Otieni Agwanda, University of Nairobi

In this paper, we examine factors associated with and the circumstance of adverse pregnancy outcomes among teenagers in the South Nyanza region of Kenya. The analysis is based on a recent WHO funded study on Adolescent safe motherhood in the region, which involved a survey of 1247 adolescents aged 12-19 and in-depth interviews with 39 of the adolescents who had experienced very early pregnancies or a pregnancy wastage. The indicators of poor pregnancy outcomes analysed include pregnancy wastage, premature delivery and small size of baby at birth. A striking finding is the unusually high rate of premature deliveries, especially in cases of unintended pregnancies. Preliminary analysis of the qualitative data based on in-depth interviews begin to shed some light on possible explanations for the adverse pregnancy outcomes observed among these adolescents. In particular, unsafe abortion attempts and poor maternal health care emerge as important issues of concern.