PREGNANT girls aged between 15 and 19 account for 70 000 of the 500 000 deaths related to childbirth complications worldwide, a new Unicef report has found.
Unicef executive director Ann Veneman revealed the findings at the launch of the 2009 State of the World’s Children Report, held at The Hilton hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg, yesterday.
Accompanied by South African Health Minister Barbara Hogan and Unicef representative in Swaziland Jama Gulaid, Veneman said that young girls’ deaths could be attributed to early pregnancy.
Since 1990, complications related to pregnancy or childbirth had resulted in the death of an estimated 10 million women around the world.
Veneman pointed out forced marriages made young girls vulnerable to contracting HIV-AIDS and sexual abuse.
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