SAVING CHILDREN’S LIVES

More than 11 million children under the age of five die every year in the developing world, many due to births that come too close together, too early or too late in a woman’s life.

Family planning could prevent 25 percent of these deaths—about three million children a year—by helping women to space births at least two years apart, and to bear children during their healthiest reproductive years.

HERE ARE THE FACTS:

·          Family planning saves lives. More than two-thirds of U.S. women aged 15-49 use modern methods of family planning, and infant mortality is low—7 per 1,000 born. In Malawi, where only 14% of women use modern contraception, the rate is 100 deaths per 1,000 babies born.

·          When women space their births, their bodies can recover from nutritional depletion, blood loss and reproductive-system damage. Their babies weigh more and can fight infections better.

·          Mothers with closely spaced new babies may wean older siblings too early, putting them at risk. Breastfeeding helps boost the immune system and prevents diarrhea and respiratory infections.

·          Babies born to teenagers are more likely to die before their first birthday because they tend to be premature, have low birth weights and suffer complications from delivery.

·          Young mothers in developing countries are less likely to receive prenatal care, and they often do not have the economic and social resources to protect the health of their children.

·          More than 40% of teenage girls in the developing world give birth.

·          An estimated 90% of infants whose mothers die at childbirth will not survive to their first birthday. Family planning saves children’s lives by saving their mothers.

·          Nearly 600,000 women die each year from pregnancy-related causes--one per minute.

·          Complications of pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death and disability for women aged 15 to 49 in developing countries.

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Resources: John Hopkins University Center for Communications Programs, Why Family Planning Matters, Population Reports, Series J, No. 49, Baltimore, MD, July 1999 (www.jhuccp.org/pr/j49edsum.stm); Population Reference Bureau, Breastfeeding Patterns in the Developing World, Washington, DC, July 1999 (www.prb.org/pubs/bfwc99.htm); Population Reference Bureau, Family Planning Saves Lives, Third Edition, Washington, DC, December 1996 (www.prb.org/pubs/pdf/fpslafen.pdf); Save the Children, State of the World’s Mothers 2000, Westport, CT, May 2000 (www.savethechildren.org/worldsmothers00/contents.html).