Medicine: Young Mothers

Doctors have long believed that pregnancy and confinement in adolescent girls may stunt their growth, cripple their pelvic organs, even affect their sanity. Several years ago Dr. Letitia Fairfield of London, a noted surgeon and sister of famed Novelist Rebecca West, set out to see how the facts fitted this belief. She visited London charity hospitals, examined 74 mothers between the ages of 13 and 16.

Last week in the Lancet Dr. Fairfield wrote her findings. So startling were they that she felt obliged to say she was no advocate of early motherhood but...

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