Chapter 3.3:Maternal Mortality Ratio

Teenage Pregnancy and other risks

At more than a billion the world over, the current generation of 10-19-year-olds will be the largest generation in history to make the transition from childhood to adulthood. With these numbers, the implications of adolescent fertility — particularly with regard to teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and unsafe abortions — are numerous and far-reaching.

Based on the 1995 census, 23 percent of the Philippine population is between the ages of 10 to 19, and 20 percent is between the ages of 15 to 24.

About 1.8 million Filipino males and 670,000 females aged 15-24 are already sexually active.⁶² According to the 1998 NDHS, one out of every five females will be married by age 19. By age 24, nearly 60 percent will be married. National data also show that more than one third (36 percent) of young women conceived before marriage.⁶³

Out-of-school youths — estimated at 5.5 million, mostly concentrated in urban areas — face a higher risk of teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and complications from abortions.

Also at risk are youth between 15 and 24 years who are in the labor force, mostly in rural agriculture and low-wage activities, including part-time students.⁶⁴

Many adolescents engage in premarital sex without adequate knowledge about means of avoiding pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. In fact, of the sexually active adolescents, 74 percent do not use any form of contraception. Also, 78 percent of sexually active male adolescents have never used a condom, and 60 percent of them have had commercial sex.⁶⁵

Although survey data show that only 7 percent of women aged 15 to 19 will become mothers before they turn 20, rural teenagers are twice as likely to become pregnant than their urban counterparts (11 percent versus 5 percent).

Consistent with urban-rural and regional differences for other indicators, the less urbanized regions of ARMM, Western Mindanao, and Eastern Visayas have the highest percentage of teenage mothers while Metro Manila has the lowest.

Similarly, education has a direct bearing on age at marriage and childbearing. But while less-educated women marry earlier and have more children by age 25, better-educated women marry later but tend to catch up in terms of number of children with shorter birth intervals.

The high incidence of teenage and unplanned pregnancies has a serious effect on reproductive health. Young mothers (15 to 24 years old) account for 30 percent of all births. They also account for 17 percent of induced abortion cases, 12 percent of normal deliveries, 6 percent of spontaneous abortions, 3 out of 4 maternal deaths, and 74 percent of all illegitimate births.
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