Teenage pregnancy is killing girls, says Unicef
15 Jan 2009
JOHANNESBURG — Pregnant girls aged between 15 and 19 account for 70 000 of the 500 000 deaths related to childbirth complications worldwide, a new Unicef report stated yesterday.

Unicef executive director Ann M. Veneman disclosed the findings at the launch of the 2009 State of the World’s Children report, held at The Hilton hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg.

Last year’s report focused on reducing child mortality, while this year’s was directed at the overall maternal and new-born health.

Accompanied by Health Minister Barbara Hogan and the Unicef representative in Swaziland, Jama Gulaid, Veneman said that young girls’ deaths could be attributed to early pregnancy.

She pointed out that forced marriages are a contributing factor to making young girls vulnerable to falling pregnant early, contracting HIV/Aids and being sexually abused.

She said these are some of the problems that also lead to young girls dropping out of school.
She cited the need for girls to be educated, as an educated woman is most likely to delay childbirth and seek better health care.

Hogan, who said South Africa was honoured by being chosen to host the launch of the Unicef report, added that although forced marriages are not a big issue in the country, early sexual activity is.

She made reference to South Africa’s health programmes, designed to address the issues of maternal and new-born health, such as the prevention of mother-to -child transmission of HIV-Aids.

“One way to decrease mortality is to strengthen the mother-to-child transmission of HIV/Aids programmes and Unicef has been helpful in assisting us to do this,” she said.

The report stated that while many developing countries have made excellent progress in improving their child survival rate in recent years, there is less success in reducing maternal mortality.

Also, although the rate of survival for children under five is improving globally, the risks faced by infants in the first 28 days remain at “unacceptable high levels” in many countries. Some of the top 20 countries in the red in relation to neonatal mortality are Liberia, Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, Lesotho, Iraq and Somalia.

Veneman said that in developing countries, a woman has a one in 76 lifetime risk of maternal death compared to the one in 8 000 for those living in developed countries.