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Comparison of Adolescent, Young Adult, and Adult Women’s Maternity Experiences and Practices
Pediatrics, 05/11/2012
Kingston D et al. – Adolescents have unique needs during pregnancy and postpartum. Health care professionals should seek to provide care in a manner that acknowledges these needs.
Methods- This study used data from the Canadian Maternity Experiences Survey (N = 6421).
- The weighted proportions of each variable were calculated by using survey sample weights.
- Logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios.
- Bootstrapping techniques were used to calculate variance estimates for prevalence and 95% confidence intervals.
- Adolescents and young adults were more likely to experience physical abuse in the previous 2 years, initiate prenatal care late, not take folic acid before or during pregnancy, have poor prenatal health behaviors, have a lower cesarean delivery rate, have lower breastfeeding initiation and duration rates, experience more stressful life events, experience postpartum depression symptoms, and rate their infant’s health as suboptimal than adult women.
- Adolescents were more likely to rate their own health as suboptimal.
