International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics

Babies carried by adolescent females are in more danger of dying than those born to women in their 20s, experts have warned.

According to Save the Children, young mums give birth to approximately one million babies around the world every year.

However, the group believes the likelihood of infants passing away is nearly two-thirds greater if the mother is less than 18 years old.

Save the Children is therefore urging the public to back its efforts to encourage world leaders to offer more legal protection and education to women.

This, it said, would enable them to choose when they have a child, which in turn could improve maternal and newborn health across the globe.

"In many countries it is normal for young girls to be married off and quickly fall pregnant before their bodies have sufficiently developed," Save the Children commented.

This comes after the group warned that the child mortality rate is especially high in Chad, Somalia, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone.

Posted by Paul Robertson