Pregnancy is the biggest killer of teenage girls worldwide, with one million dying or suffering injury, infection or disease due to pregnancy or childbirth every year, according to a new report from Save the Children.
Save the Children published a major report on family planning around the world today in which it argues that more widespread contraception could take a big chunk out of the number of babies and mothers who die during pregnancy.
Lynsey Pollard from the charity spoke to ITV News' Medical Editor Lawrence McGinty earlier:
London will host a major international summit on family planning next month in a bid to end preventable child deaths within a generation.
The British Government is co-hosting the the conference with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Save the Children, which published a report on the subject today, believes contraception could prevent 30 percent of maternal deaths and 20 percent of neonatal deaths in the developing world.
Here are some of the findings of the report by Save the Children into deaths resulting from pregnancy complications around the world:
In the developing world, family planning isn’t just a lifestyle choice. Children's lives depend on it. http://t.co/74p3EnwN #givegirlspower
From @savechildrenuk on Twitter:Our new report shows how pregnancy is biggest killer of teenage girls worldwide http://t.co/74p3EnwN #givegirlspower
From @savechildrenuk on Twitter:Babies that are born to younger mothers are at far greater risk and around one million babies born to adolescent girls die every year, according to Save the Children.
Some 222 million women around the world who do not want to get pregnant currently have no access contraception, resulting in 82.3 million unintended or mistimed pregnancies in developing countries every year.
World leaders will meet in London next month for a family planning summit hosted by the UK government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Save the Children is urging them to increase the global availability of contraceptives and empower girls and women to decide whether and when they have children - and how many.
More than 25,000 girls under the age of 18 are married every day, according to the report.
Many quickly fall pregnant before their bodies have sufficiently developed.
– Save the Children chief executive Justin ForsythThe issue of children having children - and dying because their bodies are too immature to deliver the baby - is a global scandal.
This is a tragedy not just for those girls but also for their children - babies are 60% more likely to die if their mother is under 18.
In the developing world, family planning isn't just a lifestyle choice. Children's lives depend on it.
Pregnancy is the biggest killer of teenage girls worldwide, with one million dying or suffering injury, infection or disease due to pregnancy or childbirth every year, according to a new report from Save the Children.
The report reveals that girls under 15 are five times more likely to die in pregnancy than women in their 20s, while babies born to younger mothers are also at far greater risk, and around a million babies born to adolescent mothers die every year.