Teenage Pregnancies and Childbirth Experience in Romania From the Midwives Point of View

Cureus. 2021 Mar 12;13(3):e13851. doi: 10.7759/cureus.13851.

Abstract

In Romania, in 2017, the infant mortality rate was eight per thousand; with 41,000 women who had no medical visits during pregnancy; 18,500 were teenagers. Our objective was to analyze how many teen pregnancies were in an Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital from Romania over a two-year period and underline the role that midwives have in preventing teenage pregnancies. A descriptive study of a group of 343 childbearing teenagers out of 7020 childbearing women who gave birth in 2017-2018 is presented. The teenagers were evaluated by age, the number of pregnancies, birth complications, way of delivery, and place of origin. The involvement of the midwife was highlighted. From the total of 7020 analyzed cases, 4.8% (n=343) were teen pregnancies. Within this group, 4.37%(n=15)were already at the third birth and 89.79 (n=308)were un-investigated during the entire pregnancy. Sixty-eight point fifty-one percent (68.51%; n=235)of the teenagers gave birth with the aid of a midwife while 4.66 (n=16) gave birth with no medical attendance and experienced homebirth. All the teenagers that gave birth at home were from rural areas and not married. High teenage pregnancy rates are determined in Romania by the low level of information about sexuality and family planning at young ages. The midwives have the ability to help to resolve these problems if they were more allowed to be involved in these programs, especially in rural areas.

Keywords: homebirth; midwives; teenage pregnancy.