Abstract:

Introduction: Teenage pregnancy is a worldwide problem. In Sub-Saharan Africa, there is increasing number of girls becoming mothers by the age of 18 years old. Tanzania as one of the country in Sub-Saharan Africa, teen pregnancy is a very big problem among adolescent girls. Pregnancy during adolescent has been associated with school dropout among girls in Tanzania. According to WHO, about 70% of young people start their sexual activity before the age of 17 years and a lot of girls have children between the age of 15 and 19 years, hence this leads to the increase of early pregnancies among this group of age.

Aim: The study was carried out to determine the factors contributing teenage pregnancy, to assess complications associated with teenage pregnancy and to assess awareness of complication associated with adolescent pregnancy.

Methodology: A cross sectional study was done which involved 238 sample size. Data was collected using a standardized closed-ended questionnaire through convenience sampling. Data was collected from March to April 2020. Data entry and analysis was done using SPSS version 20.

Result: From the study conducted in Sengerema district, it suggested that most of the mothers interviewed got their first pregnancy at the age of 16-19 years of age. Whereas 46.4% of the mothers interviewed got their first pregnancy at the age of 17 years. The probable contributing factor on teenage pregnancy was early onset of sexual activity at young age, whereas about 89.5% of study subjects started sexual activity at the age of 17 years and below. Complications associated from teenage pregnancy was reported, whereas 32.7% got complications during pregnancy. Majority of these complications were UTIs and malaria infections. 38.3% of the mothers interviewed had complications during delivery which were over bleeding and perineal tears. Community awareness on complications associated with teenage pregnancy was as low as 24.2%. The teenage awareness on complications associated with teenage pregnancy was low as 36.7%.

Conclusion: From study conducted in Sengerema district, early onset of sexual activity at a young age was the contributing factor on adolescent pregnancy. Thus there was low community awareness on the complications associated with teenage pregnancy and there was low awareness adolescent among complications associated with teenage pregnancy. Thus more emphasis on reproductive health seminars and campaigns is need to be implemented.