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Risk to the mother during pregnancy

 

For women having children is a risky business with about 260,000 deaths per year due to complication in pregnancy and child birth according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). This is about 197 deaths per 100,000 pregnancies or just under 0.02 percent.

The healthiest age range to have a baby, from a medical standpoint, is generally considered to be between the late 20s and early 30s. This age range is associated with the lowest risks of pregnancy complications for both the mother and the baby.

According to the data, adolescents from 15 to 19 are twice as likely to die as those in their early twenties, and girls under 15 are five times more likely to die during pregnancy.

 

Searching online for medical research on this issue proved to be difficult for two reasons.

Reason one is the large amount of data that is out there is so extensive. Firstly you have to hit on the best search terms to find what you want, then having found the relevant data, the sifting through it is a very time consuming process to find the really important data amongst all the padding and the statistical and scientific terms used in such documents. In this article I will only use some of the data from the studies but will put a lot of links in the notes below.

 

Reason two is that it is not an enjoyable subject to look into. Searching online for anything to do with such subjects can leave a bad taste in the mouth. This is especially true when one recognises that the data is mainly for adolescent children which is defined by WHO has been from 10 to 19, but as another article I have written shows, child marriage in Islam can be performed at even younger ages according to their own writings.

 

 

Growth of the birth canal in adolescent girls

On the question of age of consent the UN recommends the age of 18. Why? Because the womb in a woman is not fully developed until about the age of 17, so the UN goes with the recommendation of the age 18 to be on the safe side. The graph below shows the growth of birth canal in relation to their age.

 

Details taken from Growth of the birth canal in adolescent girls, by M L Moerman [1]

Note: Menarche is defined as the first menstrual period in a female adolescent.

 

 

Further medical complications with adolescent pregnancy

I found the table below “Odds of complication during labor and delivery for age groups, adjusted for demographics, type of birth, and comorbidities” [3] [4] from an academic paper called “Maternal age and risk of labor and delivery complications.” The paper by Patricia A Cavazos-Rehg Et al. is very thorough in its depth of data used and procedures in analysing that data. It reaches very clear conclusions about the increased risk in being pregnant at a young age.

 

How to use the table

The table has a column labelled “25 – 29 years old” and every value in the rows below is “Reference.” With 25 to 29 being considered the best age at which to have a baby from a medical point of view then this has been designated as a value of 1 and is the reference that the other ages are judged again. If the number for the other ages is higher for a particular illness then it is a greater risk of having that complication, while conversely, if the number is lower, then the risk is lower. The value in brackets is the range of values accounted. For example for Endometritis we find that girls of ages 11 to 14 have an average of 5.29 with a range of 2.54 to 11.01. While for the same condition at the age of 30 to 34 the average is 0.74 while the range is 0.62 to 0.88. We see that this condition has a lower risk among the older group than the reference age and in fact for this condition this continues even up to 40 plus ages.

In most cases, the condition goes away with antibiotics. Untreated endometritis can lead to more serious infections and complications. Rarely, it may be associated with a diagnosis of endometrial cancer. This means that in poor countries where medical help is not as readily available, then a relative easily dealt with condition can develop into a more serious condition.

 

Authors comments on table 5

Odds ratios and 99% confidence intervals for complications for each age group, adjusting for demographics and comorbidities are presented in Table 5. The odds of many of the complications were greater among young women (≤ 19 years old) compared to 25–29 year olds at the time of delivery. Furthermore, for many of the complications, the odds increased as age of the woman decreased. Complications with elevated odds among young women (≤ 19 years old) compared to 25–29 year old women, included preterm delivery, chorioamnionitis, endometritis, and mild preeclampsia. Pregnant women who were 15–19 years old (but not 11–14 years) also had significantly elevated odds for severe preeclampsia, eclampsia, postpartum hemorrhage, fetal distress, and poor fetal growth, and lower odds for hypertension and preeclampsia superimposed on pre-existing hypertension. Compared to 25–29 year olds, women of advanced maternal age (≥35 years old) had greater odds of preterm delivery, hypertension, severe preeclampsia, and superimposed preeclampsia; women of advanced maternal age had lower odds of chorioamnionitis. Age of women ≥40 years old at the time of delivery was also associated with increased odds of mild preeclampsia, poor fetal growth and fetal distress.

 

 

 

 

Risk to the baby during birth

One of the big dangers for a baby during birth is becoming trapped in the birth canal [2]. This can cause

• Head injuries

• Skull fractures

• Birth asphyxia

• Traumatic brain injuries

• Cerebral palsy

• Nerve damage

• Brachial plexus injuries

• Neck and spinal cord injuries

• Shoulder dislocations

• Collarbone fractures

 

Preterm birth is increased with younger mothers and this can cause increases in risk of respiratory and cardiovascular issues. Infants born preterm remain vulnerable to many complications, including respiratory distress syndrome, chronic lung disease, injury to the intestines, a compromised immune system, cardiovascular disorders, hearing and vision problems, and neurological insult [5]

 

 

 

 

A more disturbing factor

There is another issue with this whole question of child brides that is separate to the question of pregnancy and that is can children physical cope with sexual intercourse. All the evidence is definitely no. A child is not physically developed enough to cope with that activity from a fully grown male. I can not find a less disturbing way to put it. There are a large number of female children (and male) that die every year from their injuries due to having intercourse with an adult. Of course some of those are due to rape but a large number are in the circumstance of a child bride. I am not going to give you any statics – you will have to do your own research – I started to research it but just found it too disturbing and stomach churning so left it. I do have on my Youtube channel a link to the testimony of a lady who left Islam and became a Christian due to hearing of the death of a 9 year old bride. See following video

 

 

 

Conclusions

It should be noted that the large majority of research doesn’t even go down to the low ages of child pregnancy that Islam has no problems with. Islam informs us that Muhammad himself married Aisha at the age of 6 and consummated the marriage when she was 9. Most of the research doesn’t go down to that age. We do have the research into the size of the birth canal and that is significant because of the great risk to both the mother and baby regarding health and the increased possibly of death. What all the research does do nevertheless is allow us to extrapolate to the younger ages which reveals even greater risk to mother and baby as the age reduces.

 

What is well beyond dispute is that from the large volume of research done, it is a very dangerous idea to have a baby when the mother is still a child. From the data covered, in every case with the exception of hypertension and fetal distress, it is safer to have a pregnancy after the age of 40 than before the age of 12 and in most cases the risk is much greater.

 

The question that has to asked is that if the Islamic God, Allah is in fact God, then why does he allow such a medically risky procedure to exist in Islam’s teachings and even be performed by its own prophet – who they claim to be the best of all men? This is just talking about the medical issues and is separate to the other issues such as the moral issues and the mental harm to child brides. By definition God/Allah made everything and it is clear to see that the human body is wonderfully designed and made. So why then, if child brides are acceptable, why didn’t God design their bodies to be able to marry and have babies at an age of 9 and younger. The fact that they can’t is evidence that God never intended for children to become brides and become pregnant.

 

A lot of Muslims are not aware that this practice is in the Quran and the Hadiths and would not dream for a moment of allowing their 9 year old daughter to marry anybody, never mind a much older adult. Others are aware but would still would not dream of allowing it for their 9 year old daughter which reveals a cognitive dissonance between their own sense of what is right and what their religion holds to be right. A third group, incredibly are aware of this teaching and try to justify it. All I can say is they must fit into the category of those “whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron” (1 Tim 4:2).

 

There is discussion amongst Muslims about a child reaching puberty as been an age that is acceptable for marriage and this is given as an excuse for Muhammad’s marriage to Aisha – the argument being that Aisha had reached puberty – but this does not impress most people because even if a 9 year old had reached puberty, it does not mean they are ready to start a family. Children should have the right to be children and adults have the responsibly to be adults.

 

One last thing (well for now at least). Children can not defend themselves. They can not make decisions for their life’s. They can not say to an adult, no I don’t want to marry that man – and certainly not that much older than me man. It is the job of adults to defend children and protect them from all danger. Islam does not do this.

 

 

Watch as Al Fadi and his new guest Michael Jones discuss this hot

topic issue.

 

 

Watch as Al Fadi and Michael Jones break down the medical evidence

proving just how harmful child marriage is.

 

Notes

 

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7091223/

Growth of the birth canal in adolescent girls

M L Moerman

PMID: 7091223 DOI: 10.1016/0002-9378(82)90542-7

Abstract

The growth and development of four dimensions of the pelvic birth canal are analyzed from a longitudinal sample of 9 well-nourished girls aged 8 through 18. Compared with stature, the pelvic basin grows more slowly and continuously through late adolescence. Similarly, size of the birth canal is smaller the first 3 years past menarche than at age 18. At low gynecologic ages, a significantly greater percentage of growth to adult size is required in the pelvis as compared to stature, and growth of the birth canal continues beyond the asymptote for statural increase. The pelvis is smaller and less mature among girls with early menarche than among girls with late menarche at the same menarcheal ages. These results indicate that immaturity of the birth canal of the pelvis may have significance for obstetric risks among young teenage primiparous girls.

 

[2]Can a baby get stuck in the birth canal?

https://rayneslaw.com/can-a-baby-get-stuck-in-the-birth-canal/

Last accessed June 2025

 

[3]Maternal age and risk of labor and delivery complications

Patricia A Cavazos-Rehg, Melissa J Krauss, Edward L Spitznagel, Kerry Bommarito, Tessa Madden, Margaret A Olsen, Harini Subramaniam, Jeffrey F Peipert, Laura Jean Bierut

Table 5

Odds of complication during labor and delivery for age groups, adjusted for demographics, type of birth, and comorbidities

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4418963/

Last accessed June 2025

 

[4] Comorbidity: the simultaneous presence of two or more diseases or medical conditions in a patient.

 

[5]Mortality and Acute Complications in Preterm Infants

Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Understanding Premature Birth and Assuring Healthy Outcomes; Behrman RE, Butler AS, editors.

Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2007.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK11385/

 

Other sources of Data not used in the above article

 

Teen Pregnancy and Risk of Premature Mortality

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10940968/

Last accessed June 2025

Ray JG, Fu L, Austin PC, Park AL, Brown HK, Grandi SM, Vandermorris A, Boblitz A, Cohen E. Teen Pregnancy and Risk of Premature Mortality. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Mar 4;7(3):e241833. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.1833. PMID: 38483391; PMCID: PMC10940968.

 

 

https://www.advocatesforyouth.org/wp-content/uploads/storage/advfy/documents/fsmaternal.pdf

 

 

The influence of maternal age and parity on child‐bearing with special reference to primigravidae aged 15 years and under

In singleton births, maternal and fetal survival were poorest among primigravidae aged ≤15 years and also in the highly parous women aged ≥30 years. The young teenage girls constituted 6% of the survey population and 30% of the 174 maternal deaths, while the highly parous older women made up 10% of the survey population and 20% of the maternal deaths. The perinatal death rates per 1000 singleton deliveries were 180 for the young teenage girls, 150 for the highly parous groups had under 100 for the others. The major obstetric problems were dystocia due chiefly to contracted pelvis, anaemia, eclampsia, haemorrhage and infections. Emphasis is laid on the fact that the problems of these high-risk groups have their roots in the prevailing social attitudes which universal formal education stands the best chance of changing.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230025465_4_The_influence_of_maternal_age_and_parity_on_child-bearing_with_special_reference_to_primigravidae_aged_15_years_and_under

 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC411126/

The youngest mothers—those aged 14 and under—faced the greatest risks. Research from Bangladesh showed that the risk of maternal mortality may be five times higher for mothers aged 10 to 14 than for mothers aged 20 to 24.