Mangel på sundhedsydelser og information om svangerskabsforebyggelse og familieplanlægning er en medvirkende årsag til, at Filippinerne oplever voldsom stigning i teenagegraviditeter.
Graviditeter i aldersgruppen 15-24 år er forbundet med en øget risiko for børnedødelighed.
MANILA, 15. March 2012 (IRIN): Lack of services and information about adolescent reproductive health are fuelling the rise of teen pregnancies and hurting child survival rates, according to health experts.
“Teenage pregnancy is becoming a great problem in the country. These young mothers are unable to give quality care to their babies, hence these babies usually are sickly and malnourished,” Jacqueline Kitong, reproductive health adviser in the Philippines for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), told IRIN.
Children born of a teenage mother have a 50 percent higher risk of dying than those whose mothers are older, according to the World Health Organization.
Very young mothers
About one-third of all pregnancies in the Philippines occur between the ages of 15 and 24, said Kitong.
By age 20, about 25 percent of all women of childbearing age have children or are pregnant, according to the most recent government Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality study from 2002.
Childbearing in this age group boosts the risk of infant and child mortality as well as maternal mortality and sickness, according to the government’s most recent nationwide health survey in 2008.
As a woman’s level of formal education and income rises, so do her child’s chances of survival; the under-five mortality rate for children of mothers with no education was 136 deaths per 1.000 live births, versus 18 deaths per 1.000 live births for children whose mothers were university educated.
One-third of the women who have had a child before age 18 belong to the poorest, compared with only 6 percent of richer women, noted the World Bank in a 2011 reproductive health survey.
The mother’s age also played a role, with under-five mortality rates higher among those aged 20 or younger as well as those aged 40-49.
Myths
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http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95076/PHILIPPINES-Lack-of-services-fuels-teen-pregnancy
