Consequences of pre-marital sex

Adolescent sexuality and Child Bearing: Facts and figures

In January 2004, an expanded Partnership for Safe Motherhood and Newborn Health
was established with the aim of promoting the health of women and newborns,
especially the most vulnerable. Expanding the scope of the global Safe Motherhood
Initiative and building on the work of the Safe Motherhood Inter-Agency Group, the
Partnership aims to strengthen maternal and newborn health efforts at the global,
regional, and national levels, in the context of equity, poverty reduction, and human
rights.

The Partnership is a result of a consultative process, initiated in 2002, among a

diverse group of international development agencies and organisations to promote
greater attention to, and resources for, safe motherhood and newborn health.

Focusing on the areas of advocacy/information-sharing, technical advancement, and

country-level support and partnership, the Partnership undertakes the following
activities:

• Implementing an advocacy/media strategy to refocus global attention to

improving the health of women and newborns in developing countries;
• Stimulating national-level commitment to make safe motherhood/newborn
health a priority within national development plans and aid requests;
• Promoting effective interventions, including educating mothers about cord
blood banking, to improve the application of technical knowledge and
research findings.
For additional information on the structure, membership, and objectives of the
Partnership

Safe Motherhood
Every minute of every day, somewhere in the world and most often in a developing
country, a woman dies from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth. That is
515,000 women, at a minimum, dying every year. Nearly all maternal deaths (99
percent) occur in the developing world--making maternal mortality the health
statistic with the largest disparity between developed and developing countries.

For every woman who dies, 30 to 50 women suffer injury, infection, or disease.
Pregnancy-related complications are among the leading causes of death and
disability for women age 15-49 in developing countries.

When a mother dies, children lose their primary caregiver, communities are denied
her paid and unpaid labour, and countries forego her contributions to economic and
social development. A woman's death is more than a personal tragedy--it represents
an enormous cost to her nation, her community, and her family. Any social and
economic investment that has been made in her life is lost. Her family loses her love,
her nurturing, and her productivity inside and outside the home.

More than a decade of research has shown that small and affordable measures can
significantly reduce the health risks that women face when they become pregnant.
Most maternal deaths could be prevented if women had access to appropriate health
care during pregnancy, childbirth, and immediately afterwards.
Safe motherhood means ensuring that all women receive the care they need to be
safe and healthy throughout pregnancy and childbirth.

Newborn Health and Survival

Each year, approximately 4 million newborn infants die during the first month of life,
and an additional 4 million are stillborn- most of these deaths are due to infection,
asphyxia and birth injuries, and complications of premature birth. Low birth weight
contributes to newborn death in about 40-80% of cases. Nearly all of these newborn
deaths occur in developing countries, and most of these deaths can be prevented if
good-quality is available.

Newborn health and survival are closely linked to the health of the mother before and
during pregnancy, as well as during labour, childbirth, and the postpartum period.
Key interventions for improving newborn health include: ensuring a skilled attendant
at every birth; tetanus toxoid immunization; and immediate and exclusive
breastfeeding.

Visit our friends at Domestic Violence Services if you are having a domestic violence
problems and bhia to learn more about women's health issues.

Pregnancy and related issues

Pregnancy and Birth

"In a woman man is conceived, From a woman he is born, With a woman he is

betrothed and married, With a woman he contracts friendship. Why denounce her,
the one from whom even kings are born ? From a woman a woman is born, None may
exist without a woman." Guru Granth Sahib page 473

'It is through woman that order is maintained. Then why call her inferior from whom
all great ones are born.

Planning ahead

• Pregnancy Planner & Ovulation Calendar

•
When trying to get pregnant, determine your ovulation dates for the next 12
cycles! Pregnancy Planner is easy to use, comprehensive.
• Pregnancy Calendar & Timeline
If you're pregnant then use the pregnancy calendar to plan the next 40 weeks
of your pregnancy. See fetal growth, your prenatal appointments with your
doctor. All these on an easy to print calendar format.
• Life begins at conception and our destiny is pre-ordained
• Naming your Child, Search through Sikh Names and their Meanings

Fun Stuff
Amazing is the transition from birth, development into adulthood and the ability to
sustain and give birth to a new life. Incredible, isn't it? Read about another
mother's experience.

• Humor: What if men got pregnant!

• Pregnancy related books and Videos

Educational

• Maternal Mortality (click on the image on

the right)
• Only one sixth of all pregnancies actually
make it past the first eight weeks
• Africa and Asia have the highest
maternal-death rates

The Life Cycle

Union and Separation: Our destiny is pre-ordained with an element of choice,

implicated also by past and present karm. Shortly after conception, the embryo
forms. Life begins with the five elements and the intricate body parts and organs are
formed. Then infused with the soul, the vulnerable life is nourished and protected
from the harmful elements all the while the unborn meditates. In the heat of the
womb, life thrives and upside down indeed (the final position of the fetus in the last
few weeks of labor and delivery). In the womb the creation survives by meditating
upon the creators name, with every breath. Finally one is born and eventually
forgets ones origin and becomes engrossed with the material world. After leaving
the womb, one interacts and attaches with the conscious world and forgets God.
Growing up is certainly not easy, especially when reincarnation and transmigration
hovers just around the corner unless one partakes in naam simran (meditate upon
the name of the primal lord). Forgiveness and salvation are hence an option for all
via naam simran.

Changing times present new challenges, nevertheless the basic principles of Sikhism
help us through the tough times.
Unintended pregnancies

Reference:
http://www.sikhwomen.com/Sexuality/PremaritalSex/index.htm
Date Retrieved: March 15, 2010

What Choice?:
Abortion in the Philippines Celeste Ann Castillo Llaneta

Stories leak out, as they always do.

Thirteen young women, including a pregnant 16-year-old, rescued from an alleged

abortion clinic in San Andres Bukid (The Manila Times, July 2002). Two suspected
abortionists, an 82-year-old woman, and her 18-year-old granddaughter, arrested by
NBI agents in Caloocan City (The Philippine Daily Inquirer, August 28, 2008). A 70-
year-old alleged abortionist entrapped by NBI operatives in her house in Bacolod City
(The Manila Times, February 4, 2007). Another alleged abortionist in Pagsanjan,
Laguna, arrested after a police operative posed as a client in need of
her services (The Philippine Daily Inquirer, January 12, 2007).

Some stories land in the pages of newspapers; some even make headlines. Some
crop up in debates, forums, and opinion essays as case studies offered in support of
or against abortion. And some are simply stories you know. The college student
impregnated then abandoned by her boyfriend. The single woman in hot pursuit of a
career and far from interested in settling down. The exhausted mother of ten living
under a
bridge, facing the prospect of bringing another life into a world of poverty and
hunger.

All of these women will make a choice. And according to The Incidence of Induced
Abortion in the Philippines: Current Level and Recent Trends (2005), a study
conducted by Fatima Juarez, Josefina Cabigon, Susheela Singh, and Rubina Hussain
for the Guttmacher Institute, while some stories end well, others—approximately
473,000 out of 3.1 million pregnancies, or 27 out of every 1,000 pregnancies
occurring each year in the country by 20001—end in blood, pain, physical and
psychological trauma, a prison sentence, and in some cases, death.

Abortion vs. miscarriage

The word upon which all of these stories hinge is choice. Unfortunately, choice has
become just another of the catchwords being tossed about in the debate over House
Bill 5043, or the Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2008, right
up there with /pro-life, safe motherhood, family-friendly, and culture of death,/ the
last term being the apocalyptic outcome envisioned by some conservative religious
groups should the bill be passed. HB 5043 will pave the way toward legalizing
abortion, these groups say, adding that all the artificial
contraceptives mentioned in the bill are abortifacients.

At this point, some clarification is necessary, beginning with the definition of

abortion. “The word abortion has been misused, misinterpreted, and maligned,” says
Dr. Lourdes B. Capito, chair of the UP-PGH Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The medical definition of abortion, such as that used by MedicineNet.Com, is simply
the termination of a pregnancy through “the premature exit of the products of
conception (the
fetus, fetal membranes, and placenta) from the uterus.”

There are two major types of abortions. Spontaneous abortion, otherwise known as a
miscarriage, occurs due to abnormalities in the development of the fetus, and is
clearly beyond the woman’s control. Induced abortion, which is the type of abortion
that has the religious groups up in arms, takes place “when a procedure is done to
end a pregnancy.”

There’s a move now, especially in Europe, to promote the use of the word
‘miscarriage’ as the politically correct term to refer to spontaneous abortions,
although ‘miscarriage’ does not sound very medical,” Capito adds. “‘Abortion,’ which
people automatically take to mean induced abortion, has become such a bad word.”

Contraceptives vs. abortifacients

To clarify further, medical science has ruled that contraceptives are not
abortifacients. Capito stresses that “artificial contraceptives make the environment in
the uterus and fallopian tubes unfavorable for the sperm and the egg cell to meet, so
no fertilization takes place. Either that, or the woman is kept from ovulating.”

Dr. Lourdes B. Capito

“That life begins at fertilization is also stated in the ethics manual of the Philippine
Obstetrics-Gynecology Society (POGS),” continues Capito. There are various ways to
prevent fertilization and pregnancy from happening. These include abstinence from
sex; the fertility awareness or natural family planning method; the withdrawal
method; barrier methods that use physical or chemical barriers to stop sperm from
entering the uterus (e.g., condom, spermicide, diaphragm); hormonal methods using
manufactured forms of estrogen and/or progesterone to prevent ovulation, thicken
the cervical mucus to prevent the entrance of sperm, and thin the lining of the uterus
to reduce likelihood of implantation
(e.g., the pill, injectables, IUD); and sterilization (e.g., tubal ligation, vasectomy).

“Artificial contraception does not mean abortion. Studies have shown that these
[contraceptives] are not abortifacients,” emphasizes Dr. Josefina V. Cabigon of the UP
Population Institute. Some time ago, Cabigon adds, in response to a claim to the
contrary made by certain religious groups, the World Health Organization (WHO)
released a statement to confirm that the pill is not an abortifacient. The WHO has
also released guidelines on contraceptive use, and has included artificial
contraceptives among its list of essential medicines for reproductive health.

“There is some conflict regarding what constitutes life,” says Dr. Carolyn I.
Sobritchea, former director of the UP Center for Women’s Studies. “Still, some
religious factions have stretched the meaning of abortion. They even say that
condoms are abortifacients, which is crazy because
with a condom the sperm and the egg would never meet.”
The law vs. numbers

The law is uncompromising toward abortion. Article 2, Section 12 of the Constitution

upholds the right of the unborn to the protection of the State, and Article 256 of the
Revised Penal Code criminalizes abortion, giving the Philippines the distinction of
having one of the most stringent anti-abortion laws in the world.2 Moreover, nearly 90
percent of Filipinos are Catholics; thus, the prevailing attitude is distinctly pro-life.
With these legal and moral walls rigidly in place and the women themselves
understandably reluctant to talk about their experiences, carrying out research on
abortion can be difficult.

Nevertheless, stories leak out and somehow a picture emerges. According to a 2005
study /The Incidence of Induced Abortion in the Philippines,/ 91 percent of women
who have abortions are or have been married or with a partner, 57 percent have
three or more children, 87 percent are Catholic, 71 percent are high-school educated,
and 68 percent are poor. Abortion is also equally rampant in the rural areas.

The root cause of abortion? Unintended pregnancy. The Guttmacher Institute

publication titled Unintended Pregnancy and Induced Abortion in the Philippines:
Causes and Consequences (2006) by Singh, Juarez, Cabigon, Hussain, Haley Ball and
Jennifer Nadeau, states that six in 10 Filipino women ages 15-49 have experienced an
unintended pregnancy. In 2003, the average Filipino woman wanted 2.5 children but
had 3.5. The study also notes that roughly two-thirds of Filipino women are poor,
which, when paired with the difficulty in managing the number and spacing the births
of children, can only result in a bad situation. “Despite the common perception that
abortion occurs primarily among women who wish to conceal the ‘dishonor’ of a
nonmarital pregnancy, women’s…reasons for having attempted to end an
unintended pregnancy show that this is not the case,” the paper goes on. “The most
common reason is an inability to afford the economic cost of raising a child, a reason
cited by 72 percent of Filipino women who have attempted to have an abortion.”

Pro-choice vs. no-choice

The reality is this: a Filipino woman dealing with a pregnancy she doesn’t want
considers, and at times, actually turns to induced abortion, despite all the blood,
gore, guilt, fear, risk, and subterfuge associated with it. “Well-off women can go to
doctors in Hong Kong,” says Cabigon. Methods used in a hospital or health center
include medication with mifepristone or RU-486, dilation and curettage (D&C), or
manual vacuum
aspiration (MVA). But for the many who cannot afford doctor’s fees and trips abroad,
obtaining an abortion from a doctor, nurse, or trained
midwife is not an option. They have no choice but procedures that are crude and
dangerous.

A stroll along the streets of Quiapo will offer a glimpse into the choices available to
poor women: clandestine abortion clinics manned by hilots. These hilots offer herbal
concoctions that can be drunk or inserted into the vagina; misoprostol or Cytotec
tablets (which Capito says are likely
fake), ingested and inserted into the vagina in order to induce bleeding and uterine
contractions; and for pregnancies past the first trimester,
deep abdominal massage or the insertion of a catheter or other objects into the
cervix.

Life vs. death

The effects are always grave, no matter how the abortion is done. According to the
Guttmacher Institute paper, “more than eight in 10 women who succeed in ending
their pregnancy report a health complication due to their final abortion attempt…46
percent of women who succeed in having an abortion experience severe
complications (defined as severe bleeding, severe pain, moderate or severe fever, or
any injury); 35 percent experience a lesser complication, including mild to moderate
bleeding or pain or mild fever. Morbidity due to unsafe abortion is not limited to those
who succeed in having an abortion; some four in 10 women whose abortion attempt
fails also experience complications.”

“No induced abortion is safe, especially induced abortion through instrumentation,”

Capito points out. “First, you have the risk of infection. These abortions are not done
by legitimate doctors, nor are they done using sterile procedures. Second, there is
the risk of perforating the uterus. When the pregnancy is advanced, the blood
vessels are larger and the uterine walls are thinner, so there is greater risk of tearing
the uterus. We get a number of such post-abortion patients here [at the PGH], and
some of them arrive already in septic shock. A number of them
die.”

Morality vs. reality

The stories that leak out are pieces of a bigger story whose central conflict involves a
prevailing unmet need and a powerful moral force. “The proliferation of these
clandestine abortion clinics tells you that there really is a demand for contraception,”
says Sobritchea. “Women will not go to these lengths if they had access to their
choice of contraception. The problem is religious groups are opposing contraception
on the grounds
that it promotes promiscuity.”

“It’s difficult to argue with these groups because they’re coming from a moral
standpoint, and morality is relative,” Cabigon adds. “But there
are realities these groups just don’t understand.”

Surveys show that most Filipinos want to practice family planning and believe in the
need for a law legalizing the distribution of contraceptives3. It is hard not to draw
correlations between overpopulation—88.57 million by 2007, according to the
National Statistics Office—and
widespread poverty.

Sobritchea recalls the experience of NGOs and the women of Barangay Baseco, a
depressed, densely populated compound attached to the seawall of Manila port,
during the time of Manila City Mayor Jose Atienza Jr. and his EO No. 003, which
pushed for natural family planning as the
city’s only family planning method.
“Atienza had every clinic distributing contraceptives removed, and the number of
unwanted pregnancies shot up. These women live in shanties on stilts, which are
almost perpetually flooded—you find yourself unable to sleep at night after seeing
how these people live. The PGH had a difficult time handling the number of
pregnancies, and the women had to go to clinics in Quezon City.”

Urban poor women are not the only ones paying the price for government’s caving in
to the Catholic Church’s pressure regarding contraceptives, Sobritchea continues.
Sex workers—both male and female—are also at risk, not only from unwanted
pregnancies that end up in abortions, but also from the threats of HIV and other
sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Similarly, female overseas workers are put in a
kind of double jeopardy. “These women who go abroad suddenly find themselves
outside the gaze of our traditional, conservative society. There are no restrictions, so
they feel free to explore their sexuality.” Stories abound of Filipino women hooking
up with Filipino seafarers, of two or three women sharing one boyfriend, same-sex
relationships, and part-time prostitution. “Many of these women don’t know how to
protect
themselves. So they end up going home to have clandestine abortions, or contracting
STIs or HIV.”

In the rural areas, where people have even less access to family planning information
and maternal health care, the stories are the same, says Cabigon. The husbands are
fishermen who spend two weeks to one month on their fishing boats at sea. When
they come back to their wives…well, human nature asserts itself. The women end up
pregnant, and since they would rather buy food for their families than spend
what little they have on contraceptives, they end up having abortions.”

Another reality is that whenever these men indulge in drinking sessions—a favorite
pastime—they come back home to their wives drunk and
feeling frisky. “What can the woman do when she isn’t empowered to act on her
own? She ends up pregnant again.”

Natural vs. compatible

Natural family planning, the only fertility management method allowed by the
Church, can be an effective method if certain conditions are met. “As long as a
woman’s menses are regular, which allows her to compute when her fertile period is,
the natural family planning method is effective,” says Capito. These methods require
a careful recording of a woman’s menstrual cycles, and for the Billings method,
checking the cervical mucus. “However, this also requires the husband’s
cooperation,” Capito adds. “If your husband presses you to have sex and you
happen to be fertile, what can you do?”

College-educated women are more likely to use the natural family planning method,
as shown in the 2003 National Demographic and Health
Survey. “They know how the method works,” says Cabigon. “They are empowered
enough to tell their husbands when sex is not advisable. They
have maids, so they have time to chart their cycles every morning.” The woman in
the rural areas wakes up, cooks for her family then she goes
out to the fields and works all day. When will she have time to do her charting?”

There is also the risk of infection if the woman checks her cervical mucus with
unsanitary hands. “The natural family planning method is not
compatible with the lives of the poor,” says Sobritchea, who adds that the pill, with
its 99 percent effectivity rate, or better yet the IUD, with its
five to ten-year period of effectivity, might be more appropriate options for the urban
and rural poor.

Ignorance vs. information

For many Filipino women, the choices are limited: they either deny their sexuality or
risk getting pregnant. When they do get pregnant, they
either see the unexpected pregnancy through, committing the rest of their lives to
the consequences of the unforeseen, or get an abortion,
risking death. Is it any surprise that, according to the Guttmacher Institute paper,
although nearly all Filipino women want children, they spend
most of their reproductive years (between the ages of 20 and 45) wanting to
postpone or avoid pregnancy?

But choice arises from knowledge, and for the most part, Filipinos are either
uninformed or misinformed about sex and sexuality. “Disseminate
information by passing the Reproductive Health Act,” Capito says bluntly. “It’s not
forcing the women to embrace contraception; it is informing
them of the variety of options available to them. This is patient education. We want
women to be able to make a fully-informed choice.”

Sobritchea, who is pushing for a bill on the right to information, says the foolproof
way to prevent clandestine abortions is to educate Filipino
women about sexuality and contraception. “Respect the individual’s right to know.
Inform them about all the options suitable to their health
needs, context, and economic status. There cannot be one formula for everyone. We
have the right to information, and all the information the
people need to protect themselves and promote their own well-being should be laid
out in the open.”

Dr. Carolyn I. Sobritchea

Despite all the vitriol hanging in the air, the Church and bill’s proponents actually
share a common goal: preventing clandestine abortion. And
one way to do this is to show women that they have many choices, not just one.
“[The bill is not promoting] a culture of death,” says Cabigon.
“It’s actually promoting life, not just for the rich and educated minority, but for the
poor majority.”

Reference
http://www.up.edu.ph/upforum.php?i=210&
Date Retrieved: March 15, 2010

First of all, I do not agree in this statement. I think Marriage with expiration in the
Phillipines is not suitable to implement here in the Philippines for the reason that
marriage