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Take Abeba from Ethiopia, who became a wife at age 7 and a widow by age 12, only to lose a baby in childbirth before she was even a teen herself. Or Ganga from Nepal, who was married off at 12 and had three children by the ripe old age of 18.
Motherhood is meant to be joyous. But for many young girls, including the two above, it can bring years of sadness, if it doesn't kill first. Tens of millions of girls around the world marry and give birth while still children themselves, according to a new Save the Children USA report on the state of the world's mothers. An estimated 70,000 young mothers die each year, while more than 1-million of their babies, annually, will not survive infancy.
The report documents the devastation that rages in families and whole communities - and will continue to do so until more is done to lower marriage and birth rates among young girls barely old enough to conceive. Child mothers "lucky" enough to survive childbirth are frequently left disabled, while their babies are often premature and sickly. Both are at increased risk for HIV/AIDS. Both are likely to grow up out of school and in the wallows of poverty. Limited education is both a cause and effect. With more than 100-million school-aged children worldwide not in school - most of them girls - the problems of early motherhood are daunting.
Those inclined to dismiss that problem as wholly beyond our shores should watch the clock. Every 30 minutes, another American girl, not yet aged 15, gets pregnant. Though the adolescent birth rate in the United States has fallen in recent years, it remains the highest among the 30 richest nations - and, in certain U.S. communities, is worse than that of some developing countries. One county in Arkansas, for instance, has a higher birth rate among adolescents than 94 developing countries.
That's one of many reasons why after-school programs are worthy of greater support from Congress and the Bush administration. Policymakers should also stand more firmly behind global efforts to help young girls enter and stay in school. If early motherhood can be a death sentence, education is the true lifesaver.