Many women give birth when they are only 10-13 years old.
Many parents see their children's bellies getting bigger and bigger and think their children are fat or have a tumor in their stomach... There is a child who is only 13-14 years old but is 19-20 weeks pregnant without her mother knowing. Only when the doctor diagnoses her illness do they realize it.
The study on the birth situation of adolescent mothers conducted by Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan Huong, Central Obstetrics Hospital, and colleagues showed that in 2017-2018, at the largest obstetrics and gynecology hospital in the North, there were 227 adolescent mothers (10-18 years old) giving birth. Of these, 178 were married, the number of mothers aged 17-18 years old accounted for the majority (83.5%); the number of mothers aged 14-16 years old was 34 cases, including 4 children aged 10-13 years old.
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| Reproductive health counseling for adolescents at a clinic in Hanoi. Photo: Bich Ngoc |
The number of "child" mothers who are students is 27 and nearly 50 are unmarried mothers. These are people who will face many difficulties and pressures during pregnancy and childbirth. According to doctors, this rate is not small, thereby requiring attention and education about gender and reproductive health.
According to some obstetricians, many parents see their children's bellies getting bigger and bigger and think their children are fat, have stomach aches, have abdominal tumors... "There are children who are only 13-14 years old but are 19-20 weeks pregnant without their mothers knowing, and only when the doctor "diagnoses" do they realize it. One of the mistakes many mothers make when their children have reproductive health problems is that they often take their children to a pediatrician when they should have gone to an obstetrician," a doctor shared.
According to statistics from the Vietnam Family Planning Association, every year there are hundreds of thousands of abortions in the country among people aged 15 to 19. According to the General Department of Population and Family Planning (Ministry of Health), although the abortion rate in Vietnam has decreased in the past 10 years, the abortion rate among adolescents and young people has shown signs of increasing.
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| A woman gave birth before the age of 18. Photo: Le Thach |
Research results also show that the age of first sexual intercourse of minors is getting earlier and earlier. Cases of 12-13 year olds getting pregnant are no longer rare.
A previous statistic at Tu Du Hospital, Hung Vuong Hospital and Ho Chi Minh City Center for Reproductive Health Care recorded that out of more than 60,000 abortions, nearly 3,500 cases were minors (accounting for nearly 6% of the total number of abortions).
According to the results of a quick survey on the situation of large abortions in minors at the Central Obstetrics Hospital by Dr. Nguyen Thi Bach Van and colleagues previously published, more than 10% of large abortions are in the age group of 13-19 years old. According to this study, most minors are aware of the risk of pregnancy when having sex, but more than 80% of them do not use contraception. What is more dangerous is that many of them simply think that if they do not want to have children, they can have an abortion.
Experts in the field of obstetrics warn that pregnant adolescents face a greater risk of disease than adults, because the mother's body is not fully developed to nourish the fetus, leading to many risks of obstetric complications such as: preeclampsia, eclampsia, bleeding...
In particular, the risk of pregnancy in this group is also higher, more susceptible to pregnancy complications. Children born to teenage mothers are also at higher risk of death, poor health, stunted growth, and slower development than babies born to adult mothers. With teenage mothers, many are not strong enough for a normal birth and have to have a cesarean section. This can be a shock for "young" mothers.
