Rita Iriati and Novia, her around the world, child brides are less likely than adult women to receive three-year-old daughter, near adequate medical care while pregnant. The lack of care, and the fact that girls are the entrance to their home not physically mature enough to give birth, put both mothers and their babies at in the village of Kemalang in risk. Complications during pregnancy and childbirth are the second leading cause Klaten District, Central Java 49 of death for girls between ages 15 and 19. and babies born to mothers under Province, Indonesia. age 20 are 1.5 times more likely to die during the first 28 days than babies born to 50 mothers in their twenties or thirties. © UNICEF/UN04255/Estey When a woman is denied opportunities to manage her reproductive health, Zara, a mother of two, she and her children suffer. Short birth spacing, for example, is a risk factor for attends her first-ever 51 preterm birth, and limited access to contraception is one barrier to safe spacing. antenatal consultation at Globally, an estimated 216 million married women need, but lack, access to an extended health centre 52 modern contraceptive methods. if women who want to avoid pregnancy had recently established by 53 access to these methods, unintended pregnancies would drop by 70 per cent. UNICEF and Save the reducing the number of unintended pregnancies, in turn, could avert 60 per cent Children, in NGuagam, Niger. 54 of maternal deaths and 57 per cent of under-five child deaths. © UNICEF/UN010548/Abdou The rural-urban divide also contributes to unequal chances in child survival. Children born in rural areas are 1.7 times more likely to die before age 5 than 55 children in urban areas. looking specifically at disparities linked to wealth and residence, a new comparison (see Figure 1.4) uses household survey data to chart child survival trajectories between 2015 and 2030 in a group of eight countries starting out from different positions. These projections illustrate the need for the fastest progress among the worst-off groups. reaching the most marginalized households is more than an ethical imperative; it is a precondition for ending the preventable deaths of newborns, children under age 5 and their mothers. The STaTe of The World’S Children 2016 17