Family Planning to Save the Lives of Girls

Today I participated in a World Contraceptive Day Chat on Twitter.  I listened to the research-based information about the need for family planning in the world to save the lives of women.

And I must weigh in.  If only for the fact that 1 in 3 girls in the world has a baby before 18 and that childbirth and pregnancy are the leading cause of death for girls 15-18 worldwide.

Look at the face of this girl that I met in Laos and tell me that she is old enough to have 2 children.

In my culture, in my religion (Catholic) this a very controversial topic.  But how can we in good conscience condemn young girls to a fate that we as women in the US had the choice to avoid.  I’m not talking about an unwanted baby, I am talking about young girls dying in childbirth because their bodies just weren’t ready for motherhood.

In the US girls are able to get free contraception.  They have the education to read, to know where to go, and to understand how to take a pill.

This girl above could have use help, advice, access to trained nurses to guide her.  She had none of these.

Girls should have the right to choose when to have a baby.  Watch this video to hear more.

They should have the right to choose what to do with their lives. Because having a baby at 14 has a huge impact on what a girl can do with her life.

Family planning enables girls to delay 1st pregnancy and stay in school longer.  Here’s research based findings from Advocates for Youth:

Young women with low levels of educational and economic attainment often experience restricted ability and motivation to regulate their fertility, resulting in higher rates of early pregnancy. The cycle is further perpetuated as young women who are in school are forced to discontinue their education when they become pregnant, greatly restricting their economic opportunities.

Young women with higher levels of education are more likely to postpone marriage and childbearing.³

Children of adolescent parents not only face an elevated risk of illness or death; they are also more likely to be abandoned, left to live on the street, and caught in a cycle of poverty.^4,2

Family planning allows girls in Laos to stay alive.  According to the World Bank, in Laos 1 in 74 women will die in the course of their lives from childbirth.  In Italy this number is 1 in 20,300.

Here’s more research-based facts from Advocates for Youth:

Adolescents age 15 through 19 are twice as likely to die during pregnancy or child birth as those over age 20; girls under age 15 are five times more likely to die.[2,6,7]..

• Infants of adolescents are at increased risk for death. In fact, the infants of adolescent mothers are more likely to die before their first birthday than are the infants of older mothers.[10]

• Complications during childbirth account for almost 25 percent of newborn deaths.[11] Preterm delivery and low birth weight are other reasons for deaths among infants born to adolescent mothers.[10]

While CleanBirth.org does not work directly in areas of family planning, we should support our nurses to teach young women to know and understand their bodies and their choices.  No child should lose her life giving birth, when such a tragedy is entirely preventable.