This is not surprising owing to the rising incidence of teenage fertility in the Philippines amidst a general trend towards declining fertility among Filipino women. Evidence from the 2013 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study suggests that the trend towards increasingly early sexual initiation of Filipino youth and a low level of contraceptive practice are the likely contributors to the sharp increase in the teenage fertility rate in the past decade (DRDF and UPPI, 2014). For instance, although women aged between 10 and 19 account for 11 per cent of all births worldwide, these women account for 23 per cent of the overall burden of disease (disability-adjusted life years) due to pregnancy and childbirth (WHO, 2008a).