Too Young to Give Life: Preventing Teen Pregnancy

Despite the progress made in recent years, teen pregnancy continue to be one of the many public health challenges of our time. If you ask me, this is a sensitive topic because girls as young as 10-years are part of the statistics globally. It is heartbreaking! I decided to blog about this to bring awareness to the issue because the month of May is teen pregnancy prevention awareness month.

Having spent my early years in West Africa-Nigeria, it is evident to me that in that part of the world, it is a taboo to talk about teen pregnancy or God forbid mention the word ‘sex’ in the open. Such incident are kept hush hush and most of the time young girls don’t have the right tools and resources to deal with pregnancy prevention. For instance, I can recall vividly in middle school that some of my friends dropped out of school due to teenage pregnancies and were not able finish high school with us. For the most part, these pregnant young girls were accused of being ‘promiscuous’, blamed for being raped and sexually assaulted and in some instances, isolated and shunned by their communities. I remember, thinking to myself, how did that happen? How could these smart girls engage in sexual activities at such a young age? Why are the boys not being blamed but protected by the society (that’s another topic on its own)? So many questions but little answers because no one was talking. I promise, I was not judging but just confused and curious about everything at the time.

Fast forward, I ran into couple of these girls not long ago and they shared their stories of how difficult their life journey has been and the silver lining in their life stories. Some of the discussions include working extra hard to care for the child due to lack of formal education, dealing with the stigma of being pregnant at an early age and being single teenage moms etc. I couldn’t help but to ask one of my many questions which was “Why did you engage in sexual activities at such an early age” I mean “why did you do it”? I gathered that there were many factors that led to ‘doing it’ including lack of family support to social acceptance, lack of dialogue, absent parents etc. Also, it occurred to me that couple of the pregnancies happened as a result of being raped by family members. It infuriates me to know that, none of the perpetrators were held accountable and they got away with such a horrible crime. How is it okay to protect the perpetrators and blame the victims? Unfortunately, in Nigeria and many other parts of the world ‘rape culture’ is well and alive. For instance: “Approximately 15 million adolescent girls (aged 15 to 19) worldwide have experienced forced sex (forced sexual intercourse or other sexual acts) at some point in their life” (UN Women).

Now the burning question for me is, “When is the appropriate age to have young girls on birth control”? After all, “Approximately 16 million girls aged 15 to 19 years and 2.5 million girls under 16 years give birth each year in developing regions” (United Nations Population Funds). Call me old school, but the idea of having girls as young as 11yrs on birth control freaks me out! Gosh!!! It does! Clearly, it is something that has to be done. It is worth noting that sometimes teenagers are prescribed birth control pills for reasons other than pregnancy prevention, e.g. PCOS, acne, severe menstrual cramps etc. I think parents will be in the best position to know and decide when the right time is because prevention is better than cure. That is, it is better to prevent future headaches from happening by nipping it in the bud.

Bottom line is that everyone has a role to play in reducing and/or preventing teenage/adolescent pregnancy including parents, educators, public health and medical professionals, and community organizations

 Remember, as is my mantra on parenting, one size does not always fit all! Always find the right formula that works for your family and be persistent and consistent!

Some strategies for reducing and preventing teen-adolescents pregnancy

• Teach kids comprehensive sex education
• Target messages at teen boys, not just at the girls.
• Get the whole community involved
• Make condoms widely available
• Encourage mentoring i.e.younger teens can benefit from ‘sex talk’ through mentorship from older teens (Source: thinkprogress.org)