Facts
Maternal mortality
(Unsafe) abortion
Gender based violence
Sexual abuse
Young People
Teenage pregnancy
Young People and HIV/AIDS
STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases)
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
Maternal Mortality
Every minute, a woman somewhere dies in pregnancy or childbirth. This adds up to 1400 women dying each day an estimated 529,000 each year from pregnancy-related causes.
Virtually all maternal deaths (99 per cent) occur in developing countries: Africa and Asia together account for 95 per cent of the world's maternal deaths. Less than 1 per cent (2,500) occurred in the developed regions.
One in 26 is the risk of an African woman dying from a complication related to pregnancy or childbirth
One in 120 is the risk of an Asian woman dying from this kind of complications
One in 7300 is the risk of a woman from a developed country dying from a complication related to pregnancy or childbirth
One in 10.200 is the risk of a Dutch woman dying from this kind of complications
For each woman who dies, about 20 women survive, but suffer from serious disease, disability or physical damage caused by complications of pregnancy or childbirth.
A million or more children are left motherless each year as a result of maternal mortality. These children are 3 to 10 times more likely to die within two years than children who live with both parents.
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(Unsafe) Abortion
Lack of access to family planning is a major factor behind the 76 million unintended pregnancies every year in the developing world. These lead to 19 million annual unsafe abortions, causing some 68,000 deaths
99% of the 19 million unsafe abortions carried out each year, takes place in developing countries. In those countries abortion is often illegal or allowed only to save a womans life. Information about family planning is scarce, aswell as contraception and reproductive health services.
Other causes of unsafe abortion are about cultural norms stigmatising abortion, legal and administratve obstacles unrelated to medicine, a lack or shortage of access to information, technology and services for family planning, and lack of well-educated medical staff.
Legality is not the only issue: almost 25 % of all unsafe abortions takes place in India, allthough it is legal for 30 years.
In Africa, only 20 per cent of married women use modern contraception. In some parts of the continent, the proportion drops to under 5 per cent. Almost half of the deaths due to unsafe abortions take place in Africa.
Many national health care services must reserve a high percentage of the number of beds for women who need immediate care after an abortion. In Sub-Saharan Africa 50 % of the gynaecological beds are taken by patients with complications due to an abortion.
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Gender based violence
Around the world, as many as one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in some other way most often by someone she knows, including by her husband or another male family member; one woman in four has been abused during pregnancy.
In Australia, Canada, Israel, South Africa en de United States 40-70 % of the female victims of homocide, has been killed by their partner
One in four women has been mentally or physically abused during pregnancy
Physical violence in intimate relationships is almost always acompagnied by severe, mental and physical violence. In one in every four cases of domestic violence the woman also is sexually abused.
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Sexual violence
Every year apprioximately 2 million girls (age 5-15) are being trafficked at the commercial sex market.
Fom 12 to 25 per cent of women have experienced attempted or completed forced sex by an intimate partner or ex-partner at some time in their lives.
Nearly 50 per cent of all sexual assaults worldwide are against girls 15 years or younger.
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Young People
Nearly half of the world's population (almost 3 billion people) is under the age of 25.
Over 1.2 billion people are between 10 and 19 years old.
About 85 per cent of the world's youth live in developing countries.
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Teenage pregnancy
Worldwide, some 14 million women and girls between ages 15 and 19 both married and unmarried give birth each year.
85 per cent of teenage pregnancies was unplanned.
Pregnancy is a leading cause of death for young women aged 15 to 19 worldwide, with complications of childbirth and unsafe abortion being the major factors.
For both physiological and social reasons, girls aged 15 to 19 are twice as likely to die in childbirth as those in their twenties. Girls under age 15 are five times as likely to die as those in their twenties.
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Young People and HIV
An estimated 6,000 youth each day become infected with HIV one every 14 seconds. The majority are young women.
Young people at the age of 15 to 24 account for half of all new HIV infections: a total of approximately 3 million a year.
At the end of 2001, an estimated 11.8 million young people aged 15-24 were living with HIV/AIDS. Only a small percentage of these young people know they are HIV-positive.
An estimated 7.3 million young women are living with HIV/AIDS, compared to 4.5 million young men. Two thirds of newly infected youth aged 15-19 in sub-Saharan Africa are female.
Worldwide, young women (15-24 years) are 1.6 times as likely as young men to be HIV positive.
More than 13 million children under age 15 have lost one or both parents to AIDS. The overwhelming majority of these AIDS orphans live in Africa. By 2010, their number is projected to reach 25 million.
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STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases)
STDs are most common among young people between 15 and 24 years old.
Every year over 3 million young people get an STD.
Girls are more at risk getting infected with an STD than boys, mainly because of biogical causes.
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Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
Female Genital Mutilation is sometimes referred as Female Genital Cutting.
There are different types of FGM. One of the most drastic types is infibulation: excision of part or all of the external genitalia and stitching or narrowing of the vaginal opening.
Some 2 million girls are at risk of some form of female genital mutilation every year. Mostly when they are 7 to 12 years old.
Estimates of the total number of women living today who have been subjected to FGM in Africa range between 100 and 130 million.
Most of the girls and women who have undergone FGM live in 28 African countries, although some live in Asia. They are also increasingly found in Europe, Australia, Canada and the USA, primarily among immigrants from Africa and southwestern Asia.
FGM does irreparable harm. It can result in death through severe bleeding leading to haemorrhagic shock, neurogenic shock as a result of pain and trauma, and severe, overwhelming infection and septicaemia. It is routinely traumatic. Many girls enter a state of shock induced by the severe pain, psychological trauma and exhaustion from screaming.
Other harmful effects include: failure to heal; abscess formation; cysts; excessive growth of scar tissue; urinary tract infection; painful sexual intercourse; increased susceptibility to HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and other blood-borne diseases; reproductive tract infection; pelvic inflammatory diseases; infertility; painful menstruation; chronic urinary tract obstruction/ bladder stones; urinary incontinence; obstructed labour; increased risk of bleeding and infection during childbirth.
Source: UNFPA / UNICEF
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