Introduction:

Although adolescent pregnancy prevalence in Colombia is high, adverse obstetric and perinatal adverse outcomes in this population have not yet been established in the country.

Objective:

To characterize the obstetric and perinatal outcomes of pregnant adolescents treated at Hospital Militar Central, located in Bogotá D.C., Colombia.

Materials and methods:

Retrospective cross-sectional observational study. The medical records of 147 pregnant adolescents treated at Hospital Militar Central between May 2012 and December 2015 were reviewed.

Results:

Adolescents' average age was 17 ± 1.5 years, 59.8% of them were students (high school and higher education), and 64.6% were single. Regarding prenatal care, 127 (86.4%) had started getting prenatal check-ups late and 108 (73.5%) had poor prenatal care (less than 4 prenatal check-ups). Obstetric complications general frequency was 27.9%, being the most frequent hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (10.2%) and preterm birth (8.2%). There were no maternal death cases. On the other hand, the most frequent perinatal morbidities were jaundice (4.8%) and respiratory distress syndrome (3.4%).

Conclusions:

Pregnancy-related complications were more frequent in adolescents who started prenatal check-ups late, so strategies aimed at ensuring that adolescents have access to early prenatal care and at improving their adherence rates to prenatal check-ups must be implemented. In addition, the impact that family planning programs have on this population must also be evaluated.

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