Low birthweght babies: Socio-demographic and obstetric characteristics of adolescent mothers at Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi

Abstract

Objective : To compare some socio-demographic and obstetric factors between adolescent mothers (aged below 20 years) and older mothers of low birthweight (birthweight Design : Cross sectional descriptive study. Setting : The Newborn Unit of the Kenyatta National Hospital. Results : Sixty nine adolescent mothers and 73 older mothers were studied. Adolescent mothers were more likely to be unmarried (p = 0.0001) have less formal education (p Conclusion : This study does suggest mothers of very low birthweight babies tend to have unfavourable socio-demographic and obstetric factors like being single parents having less formal education, being unemployed and having obstetric risks for poor pregnancy outcome. (East African Medical Journal: 2002 79(10): 543-546)