BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — When a girl between the ages of 15 and 19 dies in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), there’s a big chance it was due to complications during pregnancy or childbirth, according to recently published data by the

Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO).

The data shows that deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth are among the leading cause of death for that age group in LAC region. The sad reality is that many of those could have been avoided.

Evidence has shown that ensuring access to contraceptive information and quality contraceptive services, in combination with access to sexuality education reduces adolescent pregnancy.

But there’s another connection that the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has highlighted: Teenage girls who stay in school are more likely to use contraception and prevent pregnancy. And if they feel “connected” to school — that is, they like school and get along with their teachers — they are less likely to have sex in the first place.

Director of the UNFPA Sub-Regional Office for the Caribbean, Sheila Roseau, says the connection between staying in school and preventing teenage pregnancy should be examined.

“You have more pregnant adolescents out of school than those who stay in school. …If they are informed and stay in school, there will be less unwanted pregnancies. If they are in school, they are learning,” she said.

The Secretariat of the 65th World Health Assembly in 2012 called education “a major protective factor for early pregnancy: the more years of schooling the fewer early pregnancies.”

And the UNFPA says with more adolescent girls remaining in secondary — and even tertiary — institutions, less adolescent pregnancies can be expected.

A positive spin-off, it adds, is that Caribbean countries get a more capable workforce.