Almost 20% of all women who die in childbirth are teenagers, even though they make up fewer than 10% of mothers in the country.Teenagers are at very high risk of dying in childbirth and South Africa has one of the highest childbirth death rates in the world - far higher than poorer African countries such as Equatorial Guinea.Priscilla Reddy of the Human Sciences Research Council said 11% of all teenage girls fell pregnant every year in South Africa.Their under-developed bodies put them at risk of complications in pregnancy.But, she said, many teenagers died of issues that could easily be detected and managed at clinics.About a quarter of deaths were caused by high blood pressure, a common problem encountered in pregnancy and one that health workers could be treating.Another 25% of the deaths were due to high-risk girls not being referred from small clinics and far-flung hospitals to large hospitals with specialists and better facilities.Another quarter are attributable to teenagers not being treated for other diseases such as tuberculosis or HIV.Reddy has received funding from the UK Wellcome Trust for a study that will intervene and get teenagers connected to antenatal care.Her study will use the Department of Health's mobile platform called MOM Connect that sends SMS messages that encourage mothers to have a healthy pregnancy and visit the clinic.But Reddy wants to make the SMSes on MOM Connect more suitable for teens."Teenagers need different messages. They are cognitively different. No one wants a pregnancy when they are still at school."Reddy will be training nurses to give motivational interviewing, a counselling technique that helps teenagers use self-reflection to learn from their situation."If we can replace the negative words nurses say to teenagers with a few positive words, imagine what a good impact they will have."Mogalagadi Makua, a director at the Department of Health, said 72000 teenagers gave birth every year.In separate research conducted by Reddy and the HSRC, teenagers said the shame of being pregnant meant they tried to hide their condition for as long as possible and did not seek healthcare...