Teenage Pregnancy and Adverse Birth Outcome in Canada
Conclusion
The primary goals and objectives of performing this particular experiment were to determine the incidence of low birth weight, preterm birth, and stillbirth infants among adolescent pregnant women when compared to adult women. Our findings once combining all of the Canadian data shows a 25% increased risk of low birth weight in teenage women, an 8% increased risk of preterm birth, and a 20% increased risk of stillbirth in adolescent women compared to adult women.
Preterm births refer to infants born before the actual maturity dates by adolescent women. Increased effects of preterm births have critically elevated the rates of low birth weight infants among infants. Aside from low birth weight infants, stillbirths are another problem where infants die before they are delivered. Studies by Callaghan et al. (2016) estimated that about 66.7% of infant deaths in Canada occur among the infants who are born preterm. Preterm is a biological term that is often used to describe the babies who are delivered before 37, which is the regular maturity date (Goldenber et al., 2012). However, Callaghan et al. (2016) further noted that among the two-third rates of infant deaths, about 17% solely die due to the health effects that are associated with preterm births. According to Callaghan et al. (2016), about 97% of the infant deaths that occurred for those who were born at <32 weeks of gestation, had less than 1500g of weight, making less weight a vital cause of death in Canada. Although the study did not include the rates of stillbirth among the population of preterm births, it outstandingly indicated that approximately 66% died strictly within the timeframe of 24hours after delivery. For this reason, it can be concluded that preterm birth is among the critical leading causes of infant deaths in Canada (Anderson & Smith, 2015).
According to Lisonkova et al. (2012), about 30% of completeU.S infant births were preterm. Among this population, the study confirmed that 8% of them were stillbirths, while about 10% died within a period of fewer than twenty days from the dates of delivery. Conventionally, Lisonkova et al. (2012) postulated that besides the increasing rates of stillbirths by the year 2012, neonatal death rates were steadily rising as well. Neonatal deaths and stillbirths are two closely used words that more or less vary in meaning, based on the timing of infant deaths. Ravelli et al. (2011) defined stillbirth as infants who die between 20 weeks of conceiving pregnancy and time of delivery, whereas the neonatal period is when a child dies in the first four weeks of life.
However, Bronstein et al. (2018) tried to evaluate the reasons for the increased rate of preterm in the U.S and Canada than other nations across the world. Accordingly, Bronstein et al. (2018) found that the rates of low birth weight infants in Canada and U.S were 15% and 23% respectively; and 8% and 26% of preterm births in Canada and U.S. Finally, the study concluded that Canada and U.S had 11% and 19% rates of stillbirths; and 35% of neonatal births in both countries. Consequently, the most detrimental causes of these trends were discovered to be increased infection rates of obesity, heart disorders, and poor health status (Lawn et al., 2019). Twells et al. (2014) found that rates of obesity in Canada and the USA were 24.3% and 36.2%. Joffres et al. (2013) also depicted that about 3% and 8% of total adolescent pregnant women in Canada and the U.S suffered from heart-related infections, respectively. In a nutshell, the high rates of these health impacts in the US than Canada explain why the level of preterm and stillbirth is slightly higher in the U.S than in Canada (Kirk et al., 2010).
Besides, reports by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention organization in Canada stated that low socioeconomic status and high rates of substance use among adolescent women were also contributing towards the high rates of teenage pregnancies and associated challenges such as preterm births, stillbirths, neonatal births, and low birth weight infants. Wong et al. (2014) stated that substance use among teenage pregnant women in Canada is 23% among the 300 women studied in various maternity healthcare institutions. Wong et al. (2014) further derived that out of the sampled 1000 adolescent pregnant women in Canada, 8% were alcohol addicts, and 4% of the population were also smoking. CDC Works 24/7 (2020) found that out of the sampled adolescent pregnant women, two-thirds came from low socioeconomic status.
The current literal data about teenage pregnancies and adverse birth outcomes in Canada and the U.S shows a smaller extent of the relationship with the already existing data. Perhaps, most of the past meta-analysis done by most researchers were general and were done for the large population of the U.S. However; there is more likely that future researchers will find it more comfortable to perform a meta-analysis on this research topic because current research studies engage both the U.S and other states or nations like Canada (CDC Works 24/7, 2020).
Meanwhile, the vital strength of this study is that comprehensive data is provided during the analysis, which shows some percentage of relationship with the present updated data, regardless of its lower rate. Therefore, any further research will be carried out using the available data, a fact that proves how important the information was. This is regardless of the fact that less research was done on nations like Canada in the past; thus, the process of collecting accurate information was quite cumbersome.
Nevertheless, the fundamental weaknesses of this research study are that it did not include several variables that are vital for drawing conclusions and recommendations in an attempt to solve the problem of teenage pregnancies and related adverse birth outcomes. For instance, although the analysis shown above indicates that stillbirth rates may seem to be lower in some nations, neonatal death rates have increased in the past two decades. Moreover, the study failed to explain the reasons for the figures obtained. However, the current data outlines that increased preterm, stillbirth, neonatal, and low birth weight infants are a result of high rates of obesity and heart diseases in both the U.S and Canada.
Conclusively, these weaknesses denote that further research should be done in the future to ensure that all the identified variables are utilized, and accurate data collected for use in analyzing the problem and suggestion of liable solutions. Also, more data is currently available; thus, future research is more likely to use the same in interrogating the challenge of teenage pregnancies amongst the adolescent women in Canada and the U.SA.
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