Child marriage not only violates the human rights of girls, but also gravely threatens their lives, education opportunities, health and future prospects. When girls are married, they are expected to begin childbearing while still children themselves, increasing their risks for pregnancy-related complications—a major cause of death and disability for adolescent girls in the developing world.
Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, UNFPA patron to promote maternal health around the world, opened the photo exhibition “Lives in Reconstruction” in Beira, Mozambique during her recent goodwill tour to the country.
In her opening statement, Her Royal Highness re-confirmed her commitment to increase awareness of obstetric fistula, a terrible childbirth injury that affects at least 20 women annually for every women who dies in childbirth in Mozambique -- as many as 500 out of every 100,000 live births.
At a crowded waiting area outside the operation room at the Nampula Central Hospital in Northern Mozambique, women and girls waiting in line to be treated for obstetric fistula are accompanied by their husbands, brothers and fathers.
The scene of hopeful and concerned faces of the men accompanying their partners is a distinctive feature of the fistula treatment campaign led by the Mozambican Ministry of Health, with support from UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.
“In my community, it is difficult not to see adolescent girls aged 15 to 16 years pregnant or as young mothers”, says 18-year-old Lucia Aiuba Amade from Quelimane in Mozambique's province Zambezia.
Childbirth at an early age is associated with greater health risks for the young mother. In fact, complications of pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death in young women aged 15 to 19 years.
Teenage pregnancy often force girls to drop out of school, and expose them to the risk to develop a fistula.