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Sexual and Reproductive Health of Adolescents and Youths in Malaysia
Another useful statistic is the number of
children born to mothers in different age
groups. Table 9 shows the mean number
of children born, by age of the mother,
in four surveys covering almost 30 years.
As expected, the number of children
born increased with the increasing age
group.
(2) Abortions
There is a paucity of data on abortions
in the country, especially for the
unmarried and adolescent population.
Of the 3866 women surveyed in
1984, 16.3% had experienced at least one
spontaneous abortion and 5.8% at least
one induced abortion. Figure 13 shows
the percentage distribution of the
different types of abortion, by three age
groups.
Lack of information is a major barrier
to making any meaningful situational
analysis. However, whether more data
would lead to more meaningful
interventions is questionable, given the
religious and cultural sanctions against
abortion. Even although “hard” data are
not available on rates of abortion,
observations and anecdotal reports
suggest that the rates are not as low as
might be expected.
(3) Maternal deaths
The Report on the Confidential
Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in
Malaysia in 1995 and 1996 states that
only 3.6% of all maternal deaths were in
women aged 15 to 19 years. That figure
rose to 12%-13% for women aged
20 to 24 years (Table 10).
Table 9: Mean number of children born (1974, 1984 and 1994), by age of mother
Survey
WMFS 1966
MFFS 1974
MPFS 1984
MPFS 1994
15-19 years 20-24 years
1.9
0.8 1.7
0.9 1.5
0.7 1.2
All women
4.1
4.2
3.6
3.4
Source: Population profile Malaysia. NPFDB, 1999.
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