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“Women’s rights are human rights”
Alright…Welcome back to Girls’ and Women’s Sexual Health…Part 3. Hopefully, you walked along with us through Part 1 and 2…and now, you’re here again to feed on Part 3. Well, in this section, we’d be laying great emphasis on female genital mutilation (FGM), early marriage and early childbearing and their impact on women’s health.
Without wasting much time, the entire team is saying a huge “THANK YOU” for being a part of our journey up till this point. We are so grateful and look forward to having you around more often.
Once again, enjoy your reading!
“Health is Wealth”
FGM, early child marriage and early child bearing are harmful practices which do not only present as risk factors for young girls and women to acquiring HIV/AIDS, but they also prove to be the leading causes of death among adolescent girls.
Complications due to pregnancy and childbirth constitute the leading cause of death among adolescent girls in the developing part of the world, where about one in six births belong is to a girl aged fifteen to nineteen.
“The prevalence of HIV/AIDS reveals deeply ingrained inequalities in our societies…”
Women who marry at a very young age often have little or no control over fertility-related decisions, and they miss opportunities to get educated or develop job skills.
Unmarried girls and women who become pregnant are faced with decisions about whether to have an abort their pregnancies or try to fend for their child out of wedlock.
Sexually active girls and women, whether married or unmarried, are more vulnerable to contracting STDs, and those who bear children very early or frequently risk compromising their health.
“Lack of basic education and sexual knowledge also maintains the power imbalance between women and men”
Maternal mortality is estimated to be 2 times as high for women aged fifteen to nineteen than for those aged twenty to twenty-four, and 25 times as high if the girl is below the age of fifteen. Just as expected, childhood mortality is also higher when the mother is very young.
“Without basic education, women have no hopes of pulling themselves out of poverty”
Socially, early pregnancy contributes to a cycle that keeps young women stuck in poverty with early childbearing, higher maternal and infant death rates, higher illiteracy rates and a higher incidence of domestic violence. Women who begin childbearing as adolescents are more likely to be kept secluded in the household and held in low-esteem, and much less likely to have access to appropriate healthcare information and post-primary education.
“Knowledge is Power”
Early pregnancy does not necessarily have to do with rising rates of premarital sex; rather, it correlates with poverty and higher rates of early marriage. By contrast, where girls’ education has increased, giving them better social and economic opportunities, they tend to marry later. Moreover, those who marry later are likely to have fewer and healthier children.
As sad as it sounds, girls are more likely to drop out of school because of pregnancy, early marriage, health consequences of FGM, or care responsibilities for family members and relatives.
To Be Continued in Part 4…Stay Tuned!
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