Inter-pregnancy intervals among adolescent mothers.

The study findings presented here are part of a larger study in which adolescent childbearing was described in terms of birth weight gestation and interpregnancy intervals. Focus in this report is on interpregnancy intervals only. The data file used for analysis contained all live birth and fetal death records for 4 counties in western North Carolina. For women 19 years of age or younger having a legitimate 1st birth the marriage records were searched and the appropriate marriage record matched to the birth certificate. The time period covered 6 years so that is the maximum length of time that any 1 womans record covers. This data file lent itself to analysis of the interpregnancy intervals by using life table methodology. The data file used was linked birth and marriage records and the method used was life table analysis. The following were among the study findings: among these low income rural white women from North Carolina the women who first became pregnant as adolescents appeared to have signficantly shorter interpregnancy intervals than did women 20-24; and whether or not the 1st child was probably unplanned and conceived prior to marriage did not appear to affect the subsequent interpregnancy interval.