Follow-up and outcomes of pregnancies in French Guiana: the part of teenage pregnancies.

Abstract

Describe the part that teenage pregnancy plays in overall pregnancies in French Guiana. Descriptive and retrospective study of the medical records of 25,343 women who delivered in French Guiana from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2012. The study displays and compares several indicators of follow-up visits, pregnancy-linked disorders, delivery and birth outcomes between the years and between minors and adult women. The proportion of teenage pregnancies was 6.8%; it decreased significantly from 7.2% in 2009 to 6.1% in 2012 (p=0.01). The number of antenatal visits was <7 and the visits were mainly provided by the Mother and Child Health ("Protection Maternelle et Infantile", PMI) services (38.6%). The mean (±SD) gestational age at first antenatal visit was 14.1±6.5 weeks. In comparison with adult pregnancies, teenage pregnancies were more frequently concerned with preterm labour (4.6% vs. 2%; p<0.01) but less concerned with gestational diabetes (0% vs. 2.2%; p<0.05) or pregnancy-induced hypertension (2.2% vs. 4.2%; p<0.05). Teenage pregnancies are still frequent in French Guiana, especially in the Eastern and Western communes, where first visits are often delayed by mothers who are minors and take place in PMI services, which offer less clinical, and paraclinical examinations than other settings.