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Motherhood in Childhood: Facing the Challenge of Adolescent Pregnancy

PROBLEM: Motherhood in childhood is a huge global problem, especially in developing countries, where every year 7.3 million girls under the age of 18 give birth.

CONSEQUENCES: When a girl becomes pregnant, her present and future radically change—rarely for the better.

ACTION: UNFPA is promoting a new comprehensive approach to tackle the challenge of adolescent pregnancy that doesn’t dwell on changing the behaviour of the girl, but rather on changing the actions of the society she lives in.

GENERAL

• Girls 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.
• Girls who are pregnant need support, not stigma. They need education, not rejection.
• Our future generations need to be able to choose their own lives, not have them chosen for them.
• Every year, some 70,000 adolescent girls in developing countries die of complications of pregnancy and childbirth.