The National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) has criticized those facilitating and conducting early marriage since it becomes the main factor behind disabilities in children and mothers experiencing osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis is a condition in which human bones become brittle and fragile. Most osteoporosis occurs when individuals enter old age or become elderly, BKKBN Head Hasto Wardoyo noted in a statement, Wednesday.
However, osteoporosis can also occur among teenage girls. Early marriage leads to teenage girls becoming pregnant and giving birth at an age in which they are not fully mature.
Anatomically, teenagers’ bones continue to grow until they reach the age of 20. Early marriage causes children to become pregnant at the age of 16-18 years that causes their bones to stop growing and expedites the process of osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis also occurs since infants within the womb take up the calcium that teenage mothers still need.
If a woman becomes pregnant at an early age, her bones would weaken and become short as a result of osteoporosis, which also results in stunting in her infant, Wardoyo explained.
“Do not get pregnant at an age that is too young since growth still occurs,” he remarked.
Moreover, the competition for nutrition and calcium can affect the quality of development of the child since it raises the risk of stunting and disabilities in infants ever since they are in the womb, he noted.
Unfortunately, Indonesia does not yet have a placenta examination policy in place to create quality human resources like in developed countries. These developed nations use placenta to know about the quality of children that will be born, he stated.
“I expect that (members of) the future generation can plan their pregnancy (better),” he remarked.
In addition to putting an end to early marriage, he also called to avoid pregnancy above the age of 35, short intervals between pregnancies, and frequent pregnancies.
Source: Antara News