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Published by the INFO Project, Center for Communication Programs, The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland 21202, USA Volume XXXI, Number 2, |
Adolescent ChildbearingWorldwide, each year an estimated 15 million births take place among women ages 15 to 19 (7). Adolescent childbearing can pose particular health risks to mothers and their newborn children. Women under 20 years of age are more likely to experience maternal complications than women ages 20 and above (40, 143). Early childbearing can be especially perilous where anemia and malnutrition are common and where access to trained obstetrical care is poor (61, 107). Unintended pregnancies, particularly among unmarried women, may lead to unsafe abortions (70). Complications of unsafe abortion account for 40% to 54% of all maternal deaths in Ethiopia, Myanmar, Senegal, and Trinidad and Tobago, for example (1). Among 50 developing countries surveyed, an average of 23% of adolescent women, including both married and unmarried women, have given birth or are pregnant (see Table 11). Adolescent childbearing is most common in sub-Saharan Africa, at 26% of women ages 15 to 19. In the Central African Republic, Chad, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, and Niger, over one-third of adolescent women are pregnant or have had a child. On average, among 16 surveys in Latin America and the Caribbean, 19% of all adolescent women have begun childbearing. The levels are highest in El Salvador and Nicaragua, at 25%. In nine countries surveyed in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, about 8% of adolescent women are mothers. (Survey data for most countries in Asia, North Africa, and the Near East are available only for married adolescents and thus are not comparable.) Most adolescents who are married or in a union have begun childbearing. In Latin America and the Caribbean, on average, 80% of married adolescents have begun childbearing, and in sub-Saharan Africa, 73%. Among all developing countries surveyed, South Africa has the lowest proportion of married adolescents who have begun bearing children, at 50%. Among unmarried adolescents in 49 developing countries with data, an average of about 7% have started childbearing. In 13 of 30 sub-Saharan countries with data since 1990, however, between 10% and 25% of unmarried adolescents were pregnant or had had a child. Elsewhere, the highest level of childbearing among unmarried women ages 15 to 19 is in Nicaragua, at 10%. Trends. Average levels of childbearing among adolescents, whether married or unmarried, have remained virtually unchanged, according to data from 29 countries with multiple surveys since 1990. Levels of adolescent childbearing have declined substantially, however, in Ghana, Mozambique, and Uganda (see Table 11). In Ghana reducing levels of adolescent childbearing has been a high priority in recent years. The government adopted a national Adolescent Reproductive Health Policy, and youth centers opened to provide information on family planning, reproductive and sexual health, and STIs and their treatment (6, 45, 84). |
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