Pregnancy in adolescence: the importance of nutrition

Abstract

Pregnancy rates among adolescents is increasing year after year, and Brazil presents rates above world´s average, which is 50 births per a thousand women. Researches point out that 14% of women between 15 and 19 years of have, at least, one child, most of them coming from economiclly less favored classes. Pregnancy in adolescence has been associated to low weight at birth, pre-term delivery and children´s death, with nutrition being a factor directly related. During gestation there is an increase of nutritional needs, due to the demands on energy and lactation. For the adolescent in gestation this increase in nutritional needs is greater, since there is the supreposition the mother´s growth needs at thee same time with the fetu´s development, which supposes competition for nutrients between them both, which may lead to children being born with low weight. With the increase of increase of pregnant and weight gain. Studies demonstate that the feeding of these pregnant adolescents is normally insufficient to reach the amount of micronutrients and energy for the fetu´d development, due to the preference for the consumption of that animal foods and sweets, which characterizes a very monotonous feeding arrangement and unfavorable to the good health. This bibliographical revision originated from readings of scientific articles in virtual libraries.