Childhood must never be derailed by motherhood

Lazarus Sauti

Tsitsi Munyoro (not her real name) is an 18 year old girl from Kuwadzana, a high density suburb in Zimbabwe. She is staying with her mother. Unfortunately, she is not going to school because she is heavily pregnant.

Like most teenage girls, she did not plan to get pregnant earlier in her life, but find herself in this predicament because of peer pressure, among other factors.

Another case is that of Lindiwe Katongo, a 14 year old girl from Chama Village, Zambia. She was impregnated by her 17 year old classmate. She is at home whilst her boyfriend is attending classes.

Likewise, a teenager girl, Zanele Tshuma, from Mpumalanga Province in South Africa was impregnated by an older man, three times older than her. Sadly, the culprit coerced the young girl to mention a school boy as being responsible to avoid a possible jail term.

These are few cases of teen pregnancies within and across the SADC region. Sadly, more victims are girls who are 14 years or younger.

A United Nations report “The State of World Population 2013, produced by the UN Population Fund noted that out of the 7.3 million births, 2 million are to girls who are 14 or younger, many of whom suffer grave long-term health and social consequences from pregnancy such as obstetric fistula.

The report further states that teen pregnancies can be attributed to many factors: peer pressure, early initiation to sex among boys and girls in some African countries, lack of entertainment facilities (like community halls and sporting facilities), influence from foreign cultures and cultural practice that encourages boys to become fathers.

More so, parents nowadays have less time for their children as they are supposed to; instead these children are left in the hands of maids.

Sadly, these maids have less to teach the children as they themselves have their own issues to deal with.

According to an article titled “Lack of Parental Guidance Contributes to Teenage Pregnancy” parents are to blame also because they sometimes knowingly provide false information about sex to discourage their children from participating in it.

A lack of access to education is also fuelling teen pregnancies.

“Too often, society blames only the girl for getting pregnant. The reality is that adolescent pregnancy is most often not the result of a deliberate choice, but rather the absence of choices, and of circumstances beyond a girl’s control. It is a consequence of little or no access to school, employment, quality information and health care,” says UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin.

In some African countries, the high rate of teenage pregnancies is being caused by negative attitudes by personnel at health facilities who turn away young people wanting to access family planning services.

Something, therefore, needs to be done urgently to address the problem of teenage pregnancy in countries within and across Africa because girls are losing out on economic opportunities due to early pregnancies.

UN News Centre notes: “Early pregnancy takes a toll on a girl’s health, education and rights. It also prevents her from realising her potential and adversely impacts the baby.

“A country’s economy is, therefore, affected by teenage pregnancies as adolescent mothers are prevented from entering the workforce.”

In a foreword, The State of World Population 2013 report concurs: “When a girl becomes pregnant, her present and future change radically, and rarely for the better. Her education may end, her job prospects evaporate, and her vulnerabilities to poverty, exclusion and dependency multiply.”

Since the problem of teen pregnancies is huge in Africa, governments must increase sensitisation programmes to discourage unprotected sex among teens.

Thus, providing education for all is a panacea to the problem. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon concurs: “When a young girl is educated, she is more likely to marry later, delay childbearing until she is ready, have healthier children, and earn a higher income.”

Ban also believes that it is critical to provide all adolescents with age-appropriate, comprehensive education on sexuality, stating that this is especially important to empower young women to decide when and if they wish to become mothers.

Relevant authorities must help keep girls safe by enforcing laws that deter early marriages and harshly punish rape. At the same time, they should also actively promote access to birth control and reproductive health education.

More so, parental guidance and supervision is an integral part of keeping teenage girls from engaging themselves in premarital sex and imparting life skills would empower young people to become assertive to avoid vices such as sex that distract their education.

It is critical for African countries to invest more in girls to curb teen pregnancies.

The State of World Population 2013 report, therefore, notes: “Countries must not only increase efforts to prevent teenage pregnancies, they must also invest more in girls as currently the global community directs less than two cents of every dollar spent on international development to adolescent girls.”

The report concludes, “Countries must adopt a holistic approach which does not dwell on changing girls’ behaviour, but seeks to change attitudes in society so girls are encouraged to stay in school, child marriage is banned, girls have access to sexual and reproductive health including contraception, and young mothers have better support systems.”