Epilepsy is the most common neurological disorder in pregnancy. The effects of epilepsy include congenital abnormalities which are increased 2-3 fold. The babies born suffer from haemorrhagic disease of newborn. Preconception management and folic acid supplementation is important in optimizing outcome. With close monitoring and proper management, more than 90% of mothers have no complications throughout their pregnancy. Hormonal contraception dosage need to be increased due to the enzyme inducing nature of the anti epileptics drugs.
Adolescent pregnancy is associated with long term medical and sociological problems. For intervention, it is important to have information on their profile and obstetric outcome. A study was conducted in 1999 on teenage mothers compared to mothers in the 20-34 year age group. Antenatal records of all these mothers registered in a Malaysian semi-rural Health Clinic in 1998 were reviewed and the relevant information was analysed using descriptive statistics and chi-square for comparison in SPSS 7.5. Only 402 (80.9%) of the 497 antenatal records could be included. There were 40 (9.95%) adolescent pregnancies and 362 (90.05%) pregnancies in mothers aged 20-34 years. Pregnant adolescents were more likely to be Malays (85% versus 66%), unmarried (65% versus 5.5%) and less educated (32.5% versus 12.1%). They have a significantly lower rate of contraceptive usage (2.5% versus 20.2%) and tend to come late for their first antenatal visit (55% versus 18.5%). Their pregnancy complications of anaemia and pregnancy induced hypertension were no worse. But they had a significantly higher preterm delivery rate (37.5% versus 21.8%) and their babies were more likely to have low birth weight (32.5% versus 9.9%). Based on this preliminary finding, further investigations should be carried out and polices should include programmes targeted for this group.