In some of the poorest areas of the world girls as young as 10 do not know if they will live or die once they are married off and made pregnant as mere children themselves. Pregnancy at puberty means their under developed bodies struggle to carry a pregnancy to full term and they are often left deformed or dead.
Over 342,900 women die every year from complications during child birth, 99% of these are in developing countries. Many more suffer debilitating conditions such as Fistulas (holes in the bladder or rectum leading to continuous leaking of urine and stools) and infertility caused by untreated infections. These young girls end up as social pariahs, even prostitutes and beggars as they are shunned by their husbands, families and communities who have little understanding of their conditions. In many of these cultures infertile women are viewed as witches resulting in these girls being driven from the villages. In the UK the risk of death during child birth is 1 in 8,000, in the sub-Saharan Africa it is 1 in 7.
Four million newborn babies die within a month of being born, usually due to the lack of a mother who has died or has been rejected by society due to Fistula or other chronic conditions brought on by childbirth. A newborn is between 3 to 10 times more likely to die within its first two years of life without a mother. To put these figures into perspective that is one death every minute, 80% of which are preventable.
