Early pregnancy and maternal mortality of girls under 18

In patriarchal cultures, child brides are a reflection of pervasive gender discrimination with devastating effects on the girls who face the risk to experiment early pregnancy. Often girls who are married before the age of 18 are forced to demonstrate their fertility. Yet a pregnancy before the age of 18 is more dangerous for girls whose bodies are not yet fully developed.

Indeed, child brides are in many cases married to older men and are deprived from their right to negotiate over their sexuality or to use birth control. Child marriage, more than any other practice, exposes girls and young women to risks during pregnancy, including to HIV infection.

Married girls are pressured to become pregnant soon after marriage although they are still children and know little about sex and reproduction. Adolescent pregnancies are therefore often a consequence of child marriage, sexual violence, poverty or a lack of knowledge about how to prevent pregnancy.

Newborns born to adolescent mothers are more likely to have low birth weight. The younger the mother, the greater risk to the baby. Adolescent pregnancy is also associated with increased risk of adverse birth outcomes including perinatal death and most of the time increased risks are associated with biological immaturity.

A growing child population combined with a slow decline in the practice of child marriage in Africa will put millions more girls at risk - if current trends continue, almost half of the world’s child brides in 2050 will be African.