Placental Lesions during Teenage Pregnancy in a public Maternity of Argentina

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: In Argentina, 18.3% of live newborns are from mothers younger than 20 years. Adolescent pregnancy is associated with an increase of adverse perinatal outcomes. Placental histopathological examination helps identify etiologies and predict recurrence of perinatal pathologies. OBJECTIVE: To determine placental weight and lesions in adolescent mothers, and to estimate the risk compared with young adult mothers. METHODS: The study included 50 placentas from adolescent mothers (n=18 from ≤16 years and n=32 from 17-19 years) and 101 from young adult mothers between 20 and 29 years of age attending the Sardá Maternity in Buenos Aires. Placentas were subjected to macroscopic and microscopic examination according to conventional methods. RESULTS: No differences were found between the placental weights of the three groups. In half of examined placentae one or more lesions were present, with a slight prevalence in adolescents (p=0.327). In ≤16 years placental lesions represented 77.78 % (14/18; 95% CI: 54-91), while the value was 34.3% for 17-19 years (11/32; 95% CI: 20-51) (OR 2.26; 95% CI: 1.32-3.38; p=0.003) and 41.5% for young adults (42/101; 95% CI: 32- 51; a 1.87 (IC 95%: 1.33-2.62; p=0.004) and 0.83 (IC 95%: 0.49-1.41; p=0.469) crude risks of both adolescents’ groups compared with adults, respectively. Adjusted risk for placental lesions was four times higher in adolescents up to 16 years of age than in adult mothers (p=0.018). CONCLUSIONS: No differences were found in placental weights, while adolescents up to 16 years of age have a higher risk of placental lesions.