A recent study out of Canada reports that women who were pregnant as a teenager were more likely to die before age 31 than their peers who did not get pregnant. The odds were similar for teens who had an ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion. The risk increased the younger the teen was when pregnant and also if the teen was pregnant more than once. 

The researchers say that the link between teen pregnancy and early death is likely not causal. The greatest cause of death was injury, both self-inflicted and accidental. How accidental death or suicide relates to early pregnancy is a murky area, but they could result from low educational attainment, adverse childhood experiences and increased risk taking. 

Various experts opined that more needs to be done to prevent accidental pregnancy and unplanned pregnancy. I agree.

But I and others have felt that despite what teens may report about whether their pregnancy was “accidental”, many are in alignment with the shortened life expectancies that disadvantaged teens face whether or not they become a teen mother. This “weathering” hypothesis I have written about before.  The many environmental, social, racial, familial, and pre-existing health factors that a disadvantaged teen faces all point to a life expectancy below that of her better off peers. The same applies to the teen’s mother who might be expected to help care for the baby. Weathering would seem to point a teen, consciously or not, to early childbearing while a) she is still relatively healthy and b) her mother is still with her to help. Researcher Arline Geronimus found that a disadvantaged teen is healthiest at age 16.

Risks of pregnancy are well known, and pregnancy is riskier the poorer the health of the mother. It is no surprise that it can lead to premature death, though as I said above, the researchers did not find a direct causal link. 

But, and this is a big but, the teen has a baby. She has reproduced, and has done so when she is at her healthiest. Yes, there are risks to her and the baby, but perhaps less risks than if she had waited.  

In an ideal world, women would not have to make this trade off. But even in countries with national health systems and with income supports for the most disadvantaged, the health discrepancies are still there. The messages of: wait until you are older, wait until you finish your education, wait until you have a good job, or wait until you are married, don’t resonate with all too many girls. The biological message of: reproduce while you can, does. 

See:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2816198

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2816201