” Indigenous teenage mothers are over-represented One in 4 (24%) teenage mothers identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander in 2015.

This means that Indigenous women were over-represented amongst teenage mothers, given Indigenous women aged 15–19 account for only 5.3% of the overall population of Australian females of the same age.

The proportion of Indigenous mothers in Australia is higher in Remote and Very remote areas, and teenage Indigenous mothers also follow this pattern

Compared to non-Indigenous teenage mothers, Indigenous teenage mothers were 1.5 times as likely to smoke in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy (43% compared with 28%) “

Read Part 2 Below or Download :

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Babies of teenage mothers are more likely to be premature and experience health issues in the first month than babies born to women just a few years older, a new report has revealed.

Teenage mums are also more likely to live in Australia’s lowest socio-economic areas (42 per cent) compared to mums aged 20-24 years (34 per cent), according to the report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

The report, published today , showed the numbers of teenage mothers had dropped from 11800 in 2005 to 8200 in 2015, with nearly three-quarters of teenage mothers aged 18 or 19.

Compared to babies born to mothers aged 20-24 years, more babies born to teenage mothers were premature, had a low birth weight and needed admission to special care nursery.

Despite the negative outcomes for babies, the report showed positive trends for teenage mothers including more spontaneous labours, lower caesarean section rates and less diabetes for teenage mothers.

“The difference between teenage mothers and those in the slightly older age group is due in part to a large number of teenage mothers living in low socio-economic areas,” says AIHW report author Dr Fadwa Al-Yaman.

Dr Al-Yaman said the differences could also be due to the higher smoking rates in pregnancy, with a quarter of teenage mothers smoking after 20 weeks of pregnancy compared to 1 in six of those aged 20 to 24.

A quarter of teenage mothers identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, with Indigenous teenage mothers almost twice as likely to smoke during pregnancy as non-Indigenous mothers.

Dr Al-Yaman said risk factors were highly interlinked, with issues such a smoking, low levels of education and employment being concentrated in remote areas.

The teenage birth rate in metro areas is less than half that of regional areas, she said.

“There is a strong link between socio-economic disadvantage and living in remote areas,” she told AAP.

“You need to have access to transport, access to health services and if you have to pay for your transport, sometimes over an hour’s worth, it’s going to take more of your welfare money.”

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The SISTAQUIT™ trial aims to improve health providers’ skills and when offering smoking cessation care to pregnant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.

Pregnancy is an important window of opportunity for GPs and health providers to help smokers quit, however they often lack the confidence and skills to address their patients’ smoking.

This intervention provides webinar-based training in evidence based and culturally competent smoking cessation care for providers working within Aboriginal Medical and Health Services.

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Part 2 Indigenous Mothers

Indigenous teenage mothers are over-represented One in 4 (24%) teenage mothers identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander in 2015.

This means that Indigenous women were over-represented amongst teenage mothers, given Indigenous women aged 15–19 account for only 5.3% of the overall population of Australian females of the same age.

Indigenous mothers are younger than average

The average age of Indigenous teenage mothers (17.8 years) was lower than for non- Indigenous mothers (18.1 years). Indigenous teenage mothers were 4.5 times as likely to be aged under 15 (1.8%; 35) as non-Indigenous teenage mothers (0.4%; 27) and less likely to be aged 19 (37.4%; 744 compared with 49.1%; 3,048).

More likely to live in remote areas

The proportion of Indigenous mothers in Australia is higher in Remote and Very remote areas, and teenage Indigenous mothers also follow this pattern.

In 2015, the Indigenous population rate for 15–19 year old mothers living in Remote and Very remote areas was 84.9 per 1,000 females, which was 5.5 times the non-Indigenous rate (15.2 per 1,000).

The population rate for 15–19 year old Indigenous mothers was also higher for women living in Major cities at 40.7 per 1,000 for Indigenous women compared with 7.1 per 1,000 for non-Indigenous women.

Fewer and later antenatal visits

Indigenous teenage mothers generally attended fewer antenatal visits than non-Indigenous teenage mothers, with higher proportions of 1 visit (1.5% compared with 0.9%) and 2–4 visits (9.5% compared with 6.1%) and lower proportions of 5 or more visits (86% compared with 91%).

They were 1.1 times as likely to attend their first antenatal visit at 20 weeks gestation or more (25% compared with 23%).

More likely to smoke

Compared to non-Indigenous teenage mothers, Indigenous teenage mothers were:

• 1.5 times as likely to smoke in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy (43% compared with 28%)

• 1.7 times as likely to smoke after 20 weeks (36% compared with 21%).

Higher rates of diabetes

Indigenous teenage mothers were 1.2 times as likely as non-Indigenous teenage mothers to have diabetes (6.0% compared with 4.9%) and gestational diabetes (5.1% compared with 4.2%).

Onset of labour, method of birth and perineal status

In 2015, Indigenous teenage mothers were more likely than their non-Indigenous counterparts to have spontaneous labour (66% compared with 62%), and less likely to have induced labour (28% compared with 32%), but equally likely to have no labour (both 6.1%).

Compared to non-Indigenous teenage mothers, Indigenous teenage mothers were slightly more likely to:

• have a caesarean section (19% compared with 18%)

• have an intact perineum (27% compared with 26%).