In my first article I described the dangers of early teenage marriages.
In this - my second article - I describe three common and deadly risks of pregnancy that affect millions of low-income, illiterate girls and women living in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other developing countries.
I also explain how to make their pregnancies safer.
The first common risk during pregnancy is lack of adequate weight gain.
The cause is often lack of correct knowledge.
Millions of mothers and mothers-to-be are told to eat less than usual while pregnant to avoid a difficult and painful birth.
The result is an undernourished pregnant woman with poor weight gain who delivers a Low Birth Weight baby (less than 5.
5 pounds) who is also undernourished - consequently the baby has poor immunity to infection.
The poor immunity means that a simple cough could quickly lead to pneumonia and early death.
How to prevent malnutrition during pregnancy? Everyone, including pregnant girls and woman, should "Know the Truth" about the importance of eating a little more food - not less - during pregnancy because the mother must "eat for two".
The second common risk is lack of vaccination against tetanus.
Many poor or illiterate women are unaware of the great benefit of tetanus vaccination for herself and for her unborn baby.
Tetanus infection is particularly common during home deliveries where conditions are unclean.
And tetanus in a newborn is usually fatal.
What to do? Again, the answer is try to ensure that everybody, "Knows the Truth" about tetanus infection, and that mothers-to-be are encouraged to obtain tetanus vaccination before the baby is born.
The third common risk is pregnancy complications.
Some complications are deadly.
Most signs of complications are not difficult to notice, but many girls, women (and men) do not know the truth about them.
We can save the lives of many pregnant women and their newborn babies if we ensure that everyone "Knows the Truth" about the most common obstetric complications and how to obtain help promptly from a trained birth attendant.
Why do I say that everyone - not only girls and women - should know the dangers of pregnancy?It's because health knowledge is useful for everyone.
For example, most poor, illiterate girls and women in developing countries receive their health knowledge from their mothers, mothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, female cousins in their extended households and from their husbands.
When those people know the true facts, they will be exchanging correct advice that can lead to better health and greater chances of survival for the mothers and their newborn babies.
In article 3 I'll explain about the dangers of giving birth at home in developing countries, and how a few simple measures can make those births safer.
And in a later article I'll explain the communication system that I recommend to help illiterate people "Know the Truth" about safe motherhood.