Teen Pregnancies Present Serious Health Risks To Girls Worldwide, UNICEF Report Says

Main Category: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health;  Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 16 Jan 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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The risk of dying in childbirth is five times greater for girls who give birth before age 15 than for women in their 20s, UNICEF said in its annual children's report released on Thursday, the AP/Austin American-Statesman reports. This year's report, called "The State of the World's Children 2009," focuses on teen pregnancy worldwide and the health risks for women and their infants. According to the report, about 70,000 young women ages 15 to 19 die in childbirth from pregnancy-related complications annually. An infant's risk of dying within the first year of life is 60% higher if the woman is younger than age 18 at the time of birth, the report said.

According to the AP/Statesman, the report "paints a bleak picture" of the risks of teen pregnancies, which are prevalent in the developing world. Women in developing countries have a one-in-76 chance of dying from pregnancy- or childbirth-related complications, compared with a one-in-8,000 chance for women in industrialized countries, the AP/Statesman reports. Women in Africa have a one-in-26 lifetime chance of dying during pregnancy or childbirth, a rate that is four times higher than in Asia and more than 300 times greater than in industrialized countries. Ann Veneman, director of UNICEF, said in the report that a "stronger focus on Africa and Asia is imperative," as these continents "present the greatest challenges to the survival and health of women and newborns." Veneman added that access to basic maternity and health care services could prevent 80% of maternal deaths.

The UNICEF report said there have been some advances in improving maternal health care, especially in reducing the number of children who die within the first month of life and in decreasing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Statistics from 2007 show that 33% of the 1.5 million pregnant women living with HIV received treatment to prevent MTCT, compared with 10% in 2005, according to the report.

The report also said that more than 60 million women worldwide who are currently ages 20 to 24 were married before they were 18, with most of these marriages occurring in Africa and South Asia. Adolescent wives are susceptible to violence, abuse and exploitation, as well as high childbirth mortality rates, the report said (Jacobson, AP/Austin American-Statesman, 1/15).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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