U.N. report: Too many girls too young to give birth

• Komol, from India, dreamed of going to college

• The 16-year-old girl pleads with her parents not to barter her into a marriage

"Since then, I have hardly ever been allowed to step out of the house," Komol was reported as saying, in a United Nations Population Fund

report. "Sometimes, when the others are not at home, I read my old school books, and hold my baby and cry."

• She became pregnant with her first child at age 16, in a marriage she did not want.

• Of the 7.3 million girls who give birth every year, 2 million of them are under the age of 14.

• One in every five girls (about 19%) gives birth before she turns 18 in developing countries

• The report states that pregnancies -- "are not the result of a deliberate choice" but rather "the result of an absence of choices and of circumstances beyond a girl's control," affecting their health, education and future job opportunities.

• Globally, adolescent births are declining. But they are increasing in three regions -- South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

How it relates to child marriages• Factors for early pregnancies include poverty,

sexual violence, lack of access to reproductive health and education, and child marriages

• In some countries, girls are used as bargaining chips to strengthen alliances, pay family debts, leading to child marriages.

Niger has the highest child marriage rate and adolescent birth rate, according to the annual report.

• In Bangladesh, Chad and Niger, more than one in three girls is married before she turns 15.

Why young pregnancies are so dangerous

• Every year, 70,000 girls die from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, according to UNICEF

• They may lack proper nutrition or health care

• Girls who are pregnant at age 15 or younger are also at higher risk for seizures, anemia, and uterine infection.

It's not just developing countries...• About 5% of teenage births (680,000 out of

13.1 million) occur in developed countries

• The United States leads the developed world in teenage births.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K9mmpLkadg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwL7snjESuA

What needs to change?• Pregnancy prevention campaigns are aimed at

changing girls' behaviors, not blaming the girl for pregnancies at a young age

• Offer girls "opportunities so that motherhood is not seen as their only destiny.”

• When Kenyan schools began providing children with uniforms free of charge, the dropout rate decreased by 18% and pregnancy rates fell 17%

Guatemala

• Mayans are the country's most disadvantaged group, with problems of child marriage.

• A support network for rural Mayan girls provided safe space and taught leadership skills.

• Results showed girls in the program stayed in school and had much lower pregnancy rates than the national average.