Publication:

Rising incidence of unwed mothers in India; associated social parameters & institutional guidelines for managing them

Background Globally the incidence of unwed mothers is rising. While the incidence is higher in western countries, developing countries like India are soon catching up.

Methods Ours is a retrospective study from January 2009 to December 2013 analyzing 51 cases of unwed mothers for - changing incidence of unwed mothers in India, to look for predisposing social & family pressures which may have led to the pregnancy, to study neonatal outcomes in such mothers & to analyze the role of social worker intervention in the management of such pregnancies.

Results Our study showed a 50% rise in the incidence of unwed mothers in our institute over the years with a majority (49%) of them being teenaged girls. 68% unwed mothers were uneducated or had only primary education & 58.9% unwed mothers had some predisposing factor which might have contributed to the pregnancy. 52% unwed mothers (who delivered) opted for institutional admission till term and 35.4% of these underwent a caesarean section at term (higher than institute LSCS rates). 21.5% unwed mother united with father with social worker intervention.

Conclusions Social and demographic parameters play a significant role in the incidence of unwed mothers. Several of these parameters are subject to external regulation & can reduce incidence of unwed mothers. Also the role of a social worker is priceless in management of these patients.