To Reduce Maternal and Infant Mortality, End Child Marriage
By GHHub
Credit: Graham Crouch/The Elders
It is well documented that early pregnancy increases both maternal and infant mortality and morbidity. Girls younger than 18 are as much as five times more likely to die in childbirth and vastly more likely to suffer injury and illness as a result of childbearing than are women in their twenties. Children whose mothers die are more likely to die, be ill, and/or suffer from stunted growth. And babies of very young mothers tend to have lower birth weights and mortality rates sometimes twice as high as those of older women (pdf).
It is also common knowledge that the vast majority—99 percent—of maternal deaths every year occurs in developing countries, where around 1 out of every 48 women dies from pregnancy-related causes
What is less well known is the great frequency with which early childbirth occurs within the context of marriage. Across most of the developing world, an average of one in three girls is married and usually under intense pressure to prove her fertility. Some ten million girls under the age of 18 are wed every year. “For the vast majority of under-educated rural adolescent girls in the developing world, marriage remains the likely context for sexual intercourse,” states UNICEF (pdf).
Ending the practice of child marriage could prevent a surprisingly large portion of maternal and infant mortality and morbidity. This was one among the many reasons expressed by members of The Elders, a group of eminent global leaders, in launching a new international campaign to end child marriage in a generation. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, and Gro Brundtland, former prime minister of Norway, announced the Girls Not Brides initiative at last week’s meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in New York City.
At a CGI plenary session on humanitarian leadership, Tutu stated that if we do not take assertive action to halt this harmful practice, “We can forget about improving maternal health.”
The birthing-related dangers faced by teenage girls are specific to their age, as the immaturity of their bodies is their key risk factor. Girls’ narrow pelvis and birth canal are usually not yet fully developed and therefore unable to endure long and intense labor. Girls are at particular risk for fistula (both vesico-vaginal and recto-vaginal), which cannot be healed without surgical intervention that can be hard for this population to access. It is not surprising that pregnancy-related death is the leading cause for girls 15 to 19 worldwide (pdf).
The youth of the mother also has an impact on the prospects of the infant, as poor maternal nutrition leads more adolescent mothers to deliver low-birth-weight babies than their older peers. Such newborns face a risk of death 5 to 30 times higher than normal-weight babies. Additionally, children of girls under 18 are 60 percent more likely to die in their first year of life than babies born to mothers over 19 (pdf).
It follows that if children who are married are the most likely to be pregnant, and children who are pregnant are the most likely to die in childbirth, it will be impossible to adequately address maternal health without also addressing child marriage. Likewise, if the babies of young mothers are particularly likely to suffer complications, and young mothers are particularly likely to be married, we cannot adequately address infant health without also addressing child marriage.
The practice impedes countries’ progress on six of the eight Millennium Development Goals, including the goal of reducing the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters by 2015. Further, relegating girls to birthing rooms, sickbeds, and nurseries instead of enrolling them in school where they can learn to be contributing and independent members of society is a severe drain on economic resources and a hindrance to development in general.
“No girl should be forced to marry and have a child while still a child herself,” said Jennifer Buffett, president and co-chair of the NoVo Foundation, a founding partner of Girls Not Brides. “At the heart of this campaign is a belief that adolescent girls are the most important force for change in the world. Allowing girls to be girls instead of wives and mothers improves not only their own lives, but the prospects of their entire societies.”
Katherine Gustafson is a freelance writer based in the Washington, DC area. She frequently covers topics of social responsibility, women’s rights, food, and travel for a range of publications. Her first book, on sustainable food, will be published by Macmillan next May.
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Posted by GHHub
on Sep 28 2011. Filed under Featured Content, Hub Full-Length Features, Women & Children.
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