Pregnant adolescents in rural Transkei. Age per se does not confer high-risk status.

No significant differences were found when the obstetric outcome of 515 rural adolescents aged 16 years and younger was compared with that of an equal number of matched young adult rural women aged 20-29 years in respect of booking status, postpartum haemoglobin content, operative/instrumental delivery, mean neonatal birth mass and the incidence of infants weighing under 2,500 g. These results support the conclusions of recent studies in Australia and the USA that adolescence per se confers no increased obstetric risk. On the other hand, unwed motherhood (among all age groups) constitutes a most disturbing social trend in black rural society and this, rather than teenage pregnancy as such, ought to be the focus of concern for social workers and the medical profession.