Adolescent pregnancy: the Jackson, Mississippi, experience.

An adolescent pregnancy center combining the educational, medical, and social needs was operational in Jackson, Mississippi, from September, 1971, to July 1976. Administrative responsibilities were shared by the University of Mississippi and the Jackson Separate School District. From 1971 to 1975, 763 students were enrolled. The mean age was 16 and ages ranged from 11 to 18 years. Ninety-nine per cent were black and a majority were poor and from a single-parent home. There was a 78 per cent school retention rate, but the center did not reduce dependence upon welfare assistance. When center, noncenter, faculty, and unregistered patients were compared, no difference could be detected in the incidence of medical complications, low birth weight, hypertension, and hematocrit. When compared for age only hypertension and difficult deliveries appeared to be age related.