Teenage pregnancy, motherhood increased in urban areas

Because so many girls are married off between the ages of 15 and 19, the percentage of teenage pregnancies and teenaged moms has grown in urban areas.

In slum areas, 22.1% of women under the age of 19 had already started having children, according to the Urban Health Survey 2021 from the National Institute of Population Research and Training (NIPORT).

In non-slum neighborhoods and 10.9% of other metropolitan areas, one in five women between the ages of 15 and 19 are also included in this group.

The percentage of births that occurred in a healthcare facility with skilled birth attendants was highest among those who did not live in slums (70.3%), and it was lowest among those who did live in slums (53.7%). Breastfeeding rates have dropped at the same time that the number of unplanned pregnancies has increased.

The urban health survey of 2021 found that the percentage of C-section births for women living in slums (31%), non-slums (55%), and the remainder of urban areas (51%), was unacceptably high.

Women in non-slums and the rest of urban areas were almost 77% and 75% more likely to give birth at a healthcare facility than those living in slums (58%).  In 2021, the contraceptive prevalence rate was 72% in urban slums and 68% in the rest of urban regions.

Women in slums and other urban areas experienced a 17 percentage point increase in facility deliveries between 2013 and 2021, while women in non-slums only saw a 12 percentage point increase. Family planning methods are more often used in slums than in non-slum areas, but the usage of long-acting and permanent methods is low in both slum and non-slum settings.

The report was released on 03 January, 2023 at the CIRDAP in Dhaka, and it is based on the results of the Third Bangladesh Urban Health Survey (BUHS) 2021.

Following the 2006 UHS and the 2013 UHS, the 2021 UHS will be the third of its type.