Teenage Pregnancy can be controlled

Apr 12, 2015 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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By Sheba Thomas
Youths For Change

It is estimated that about 16 million girls between the ages of 15 to 19, and some one million girls under

15 years, give birth every year, with most of them coming from low and middle income countries (World Health Org).
According to the State of the World Population 2013 report, Guyana has the second highest rate of adolescent pregnancy in both the Caribbean and South America with 97 out every 1000 girls between the ages of 15-19 giving birth.
Nearly all teen pregnancies are unplanned. That is, teens say they did not want to get pregnant or cause a pregnancy. That alone is reason enough to care about preventing teen pregnancy. But, it is also the case that teen pregnancy is closely linked to a host of other critical social issues—poverty and income, overall child well-being, out-of-wedlock births, responsible fatherhood, health issues, education, child welfare, and other risky behaviour.
There are also substantial public costs associated with adolescent child-bearing. Consequently, teen pregnancy should be viewed not only as a reproductive health issue, but as one that encompasses all of the aforementioned. It is therefore necessary to understand the associated risk and preventative factors in order to appropriately implement prevention efforts, as these factors occur in multiple domains.
Teen pregnancy can result in a number of negative consequences such as; teen mothers are more than likely to drop out of high schools than females who delay having children, resulting in social isolation from their peer group. Only 41% of teens who gave birth before age 15 graduate from secondary school as compared to the 61% who delayed childbirth.
With an incomplete education teenage mothers may lack necessary job skills and are more likely to live in poverty which can lead to a cycle of poverty for that child. Teen mothers are more at risk for increased exposure to domestic abuse and violence. Children born to teenage mothers are at greater risk for abuse and neglect, increased risk of developmental delay and learning disabilities, and are less likely to receive early and continuing cognitive and social stimulation, resulting in underdeveloped intellect and lower rates on academic achievement. Girls born to teenage mothers are 22% more than likely to become teenage mothers.
By preventing teen and unplanned pregnancy, we can significantly improve other serious social problems including poverty (especially child poverty), child abuse and neglect, father-absence, low birth weight, school failure, and poor preparation for the workforce.
Under an APNU+AFC government, teenage women of Guyana can look forward to better livelihood as we will put measures in place to eradicate poverty and rebuild morals by improving the lives of young people and strengthening communities to better understand and cope with reducing teen pregnancy.
An APNU+AFC government will ensure and secure the health of our young people, especially our young women, by making sure our health care system is more youth-friendly and appropriate.
The coalition will guarantee educational opportunities are provided to all women from primary to secondary by establishing remedial programmes for women with special focus on literacy, numeracy and matriculation.  An APNU+AFC government will ensure the school curriculum addresses specific issues related to sex education, women’s rights and family planning to better combat teen pregnancy.
An APNU-AFC administration will provide economic empowerment to young single teen mothers by establishing and conducting skills training programmes and match those trained with private and public employers, and by providing child benefit allowance per month.
The APNU+AFC alliance will move beyond paying lip-service to taking practical measures to ensure our young women can realize their full potential. Reforming our education system to bring it in line with developed countries is our objective. It is only by educating our people that we can hope to raise this country out of the abyss into which it has sunk. The reform of the education system would have to consider ways of matching technology with the demands of our schools. In this context, the APNU+AFC Government would look at utilizing audio-visual aid to bring expert teaching to our children, especially in the hinterland and riverain communities.
This process of addressing teen pregnancy requires every Guyanese to recognize the need to protect our young women and well-being of our society by providing better opportunities for our youths to make wiser choices. Let us therefore secure the future of Guyana, and the future of our youths, by electing APNU+AFC for government.

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