Guinea-Bissau

Vital Statistics for Mothers and Children

Guinea-Bissau's total fertility rate is 7.1, the birth rate 36 per 1,000 population, and the population growth rate is 2.9 percent. Life expectancy at birth is 45 years for males and 48 years for females. Sixty-one percent of women and 92.6 percent of men age 15 and over participate in the labor force. Male literacy is estimated at 58.1 percent and female literacy at 27.4 percent, with a schooling expectancy of 7 years for males and 4 years for females.

Guinea-Bissau ranks very poorly on issues of mother's and children's health. Only four percent of women report using modern methods of contraception, and the maternal death rate is one of the highest in the world at 1,100 per 100,000 live births. The stillbirth rate is 43 per 1,000 total births, and the neonatal mortality rate is 48 per 1,000 live births. Two-thirds of women give birth at home, often without medical assistance. Abortion is illegal, but allowed in practice if necessary to save the mother's life. In 2007, the international organization Save the Children placed it 29th on the Mothers' Index, 26th on the Women's Index, and 25th on the Children's Index out of 33 Tier III or Least Developed Countries.

Few women are in the labor force, although some operate as village traders, and others work in menial jobs in factories and as domestics and cleaners. The Uniao Democrático de Mulheres (UDEMU: Democratic Union of Women) was established by the government “to mobilize the mass of women in the struggle for their emancipation,” but it has not helped the plight of the majority of women in the country.