Early Marriages Are Rising, UM Surabaya Lecturer: Beware of Uterine Cancer to Stunting

• 13 Jun
• 2022

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Early Marriages Are Rising, UM Surabaya Lecturer: Beware of Uterine Cancer to Stunting

• Article
• By Uswah Sahal
• Health
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A few weeks ago the community was shocked by the early marriage of junior high school students that took place in Wajo Regency, South Sulawesi. It is known that the two are aged 15 years and 16 years. This attracted the attention of Fulatul Anifah, a lecturer at the Faculty of Health Sciences (FIK), to provide a response.

According to Fula, the practice of early marriage not only damages a child's future and deprives them of their human rights, it will also have an impact on their health. One of the risks is uterine cancer and stunting.

"First is the risk of health problems due to having to get pregnant and giving birth at an age that is not yet reproductively mature, so there is a risk of defects in the child, the mother dying during childbirth," explained Fula in a written statement Monday (13/6/22)

According to him, a teenage girl's cervix is still sensitive if forced to get pregnant and is at risk of experiencing cervical cancer in the future.

Fula explained that the healthy reproductive age for women is between 20-30 years. The risk of suffering from anemia during pregnancy and during childbirth can also occur, because when early marriage occurs, they are still in their teens where at this age is a period of growth that requires more nutrition so that if a pregnancy occurs it will divide the absorption of nutrients between the mother and the fetus .

"This will pose a risk of malnutrition in the mother who is at risk of anemia in pregnancy as well as a lack of nutrition to the fetus which can later trigger the emergence of stunting problems," he added again.

Fula said the problem of stunting is like a cyclical circle. That mothers who are stunted will give birth to stunted children.

At the end of his statement he emphasized the importance of teenagers getting good information, so they don't make the wrong plans for the future both in terms of education, marriage, including their health. As well as being a pioneer of healthy youth and will give birth to a quality future generation.