messages and talking points - swop 2013.doc

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Messages and Talking PointsMotherhood in Childhood:

Facing the Challenge of Adolescent PregnancyUNFPA State of the World Population Report 2013

PROBLEMMotherhood in childhood is a huge global problem, especially in developingcountries, where every year 7.3 million girls under the age of 18 give birth.

Of greatest concern are the 2 milliongirls who give birth by age !because they suffer the most dire health and social consequences.

Traditionally, the blame for these pregnancies has been placed on the girls,and efforts to prevent these pregnancies have aimed at changing girlsbehaviour. ut we cant solve this problem unless we change the actions oftheir families, communities and governments, too.

!regnancy ta"es a toll on a girls health, education and rights and preventsher from reali#ing her potential. $t also ta"es a toll on the baby, thecommunity and national development.

%dolescent pregnancy is often a symptom of powerlessness, poverty, or

abuse and the result of little or no access to school, employment and qualityreproductive information and health care.

y ignoring the behaviour of boys and men who often force or coerce girls to

have se&, or of their communities, which tolerate gender'based violence andchild marriage, we are complicit in perpetuating adolescent pregnancy.

"ON#E$UEN"E#(hen a girl becomes pregnant, her present and future radically change)rarely forthe better.

%ll too often, a girls education will end, and her *ob prospects evaporate,

while her vulnerabilities to poverty, health problems, social e&clusion and

dependency multiply.

+irls under 1 suffer the gravest long'term health and social

consequences from premature pregnancy, including high rates of maternaldeath and obstetric fistula.

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-inety per cent of adolescent pregnancies occur to girls who are married or

in a union before 18 and who have little or no say in decisions about when orwhether to become pregnant.

A"T%ON

-/!% is promoting a new comprehensive approach to tac"le the challenge ofadolescent pregnancy that doesnt dwell on changing the behaviour of the girl, butrather on changing the actions of the society she lives in.

(e need to help girls attend school and stay enrolled until at least 18because education is one of the most effective ways of delaying marriageand pregnancy until adulthood. %nd after giving birth, we must return girls toschool so they can get their lives bac".

+irls dont get themselves pregnant. oys and men must become part of the

solution by curbing e&ploitation, abuse and sub*ugation of girls.

0ommunities must condemn child marriage and institute and enforce laws to

ban it now)3&'((( gi)ls a)e still being *o)+ed into ma))iage e,e)yday, often to older men who often discard their victims after prematurepregnancy ruins them physically.

(e must tear down the social, economic and geographic barriers to girls

access to information and services to enable her to ma"e choices to preventpregnancy.

(e must intervene in ways that help the most vulnerable, especially girls

between 1 and 1, who need support that builds their agency and protectstheir rights.

$f we do a better *ob of upholding the rights of every girl and empowering her

to e&ercise her rights, we can eliminate many of the conditions thatcontribute to adolescent pregnancy.

Ot-e) oints

+irls who have real choices in life and the power to shape their own destinies

will choose a future that is not derailed by motherhood in childhood.

+irls who are pregnant need support, not stigma. They need education,not re*ection.

Our future generations need to be able to choose their own lives, not have

them chosen for them.

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3very year, some 7('((( adoles+ent gi)ls in de,eloing +o/nt)ies dieof

complications of pregnancy and childbirth.

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messages and talking points - swop 2013.doc

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