Young Mothers Can Have Health Problems in Midlife

STATES CHRONICLE – Teenage pregnancies have not only an immediate negative effect on a woman’s life but it also looks like young mothers can have health problems in midlife.

Nowadays although still very concerning teenage pregnancies don’t seem to be a surprise anymore. The matter has been long discussed and it seems that the main reason for getting pregnant so early in life is because of lack of sexual education, because both girls and boys don’t know how to protect themselves and their partners from unwanted pregnancies or STDs.

Besides the immediate effect a pregnancy can have on the life of a teenage girl which concerns mostly social issues, it seems that on long term, a pregnancy at such an early age can increase the risk of developing health problems after the age of 40. The same goes for women getting pregnant in their early 20s, as compared to the ones that bear children later who are less likely to have health problems later in life.

The study that proves so was recently published in the Health and Social Behavior journal. The study was conducted by a team of researchers led by Kristi Williams on 3,000 subjects. The subjects were monitored from 1979 until 2008 and the focus was on their health development once they reached the age of 40. The women participating in the study gave birth at ages between 15 and 35. The findings showed that the women who became mothers at a younger age had more health problems after 40 years old than the ones who waited until they were 24 or 25 to get pregnant.

The researchers also tried to find if marriage can represent a factor in developing health problems and it looked like single mothers were actually healthier than the ones who were married. Apparently, the main reason is represented by stressful marriages which are more common among African-Americans. This means that African-American women could be more prone to develop health problems after they reach the age of 40.

In conclusion, the results of the study could represent another reason for women not to hurry to get pregnant and hopefully will discourage teenage pregnancies. In the U.S. approximately 750,000 teenage girls get pregnant every year and also, one third of American women give birth in their early 20s.

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