Early perinatal outcomes of babies born to adolescent mothers at two maternity hospitals in Mogadishu, Somalia.

BACKGROUND

Adolescent motherhood remains a major problem in developing countries. We set out to describe the perinatal outcomes of infants born to adolescent mothers and to determine factors associated with birth asphyxia among these infants in Mogadishu, Somalia.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study involved adolescent mothers who presented in labor. Sociodemographic and medical data was collected and mother-infant pairs were followed up at 24hrs. Poor perinatal outcomes were: low birth weight, birth asphyxia, death or hospitalization after 24 hours. Data was entered into Epi data 3.1 and analysed using STATA version 12.0.

RESULTS

Of the 270 adolescents, mean age was 17.7 years (±1.19), 89% were married, 94% were unemployed and 54% had not received formal education. Of the 270 babies born, 70 (25.9%) had poor perinatal outcomes which included; 35 (12.9%) died; of whom 30 (11.1%) were stillbirths. Thirty-two infants (13.3%) had birth asphyxia and 18 (6.7%) had low birth weight. Prolonged labor (p-value=<0.001) and preterm birth (p-value=0.023) were significantly associated with birth asphyxia while living in Mogadishu was protective (p- value=0.018).

CONCLUSIONS

About one in four adolescent mother's babies had poor perinatal outcomes. Prolonged labor and preterm delivery and were associated with birth asphyxia while residing closer to the facilities was protective.