2 years, 8 months ago-
Teenage pregnancies can place a tremendous burden on a family, especially in developing countries where the resources needed for safe childbirth can be hard to acquire. They can also lead to other negative consequences, including early marriage for young women and sexually transmitted infections. In recognition of how harmful teen pregnancies are to the health of mothers and their children, there has been a major push throughout the world to reduce rates of adolescent pregnancy and parenthood. Nearly half of all pregnancies in the developing world are among girls under the age of 18, and more than eight million adolescent women become pregnant every year. These statistics have had devastating effects on young women’s ability to complete their education, attain a decent standard of living, exercise rights, and contribute to community development.
Around the world, many communities and societies still consider teenage pregnancy to be taboo. Many governments are quick to ignore or even forcefully deny the existence of teenage pregnancies in their respective countries. There are many reasons for this denial – fear of adverse reactions from the public due to social stigma, religious beliefs, and perhaps even embarrassment of failed family planning policies in general.
Teenage pregnancy is a major public health concern and an important public policy issue in Singapore. Early pregnancies place adolescent mothers and their children at risk for negative physical, mental health, social, and educational consequences. Although teenage pregnancy is an issue in most countries, it is a particularly acute public health concern in developing nations. The consequences of early pregnancy include physical and psychological morbidity and mortality of mothers; disabling conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and infectious diseases, for their babies; as well as high rates of educational failure, poverty, and incarceration for the fathers who may have accompanied them.
While the causes of teenage pregnancy are multi-determined, the implications at the individual level are profound: higher risks for the mother and child during pregnancy and a greater likelihood of prenatal mortality for both the child and mother. These challenges place a heavy burden on future health and development outcomes for these children. At the macro-level, adolescent pregnancy affects economic productivity due to higher rates of school dropout, lower educational attainment levels in later life, and reduced lifetime earning potential. Understanding the determinants at the individual level is important because it can help policy-makers and program designers to develop better interventions that can strengthen individual and community decision-making processes for delaying pregnancy. By identifying protective factors and risk factors, we can move further in the development of an effective system for addressing teenage pregnancies.
Teenage pregnancy is the most dreadful experience faced by many and it also impacts them in their life very drastically. It may be considered as a worst-case scenario for the family when their teenage is pregnant and mostly many react very harshly and angrily with them because they have to face society and their comments or reactions and it will make them guilty of something.
Teenage pregnancy leads to women leaving education because after this they face many criticisms from all and so they will feel uncomfortable to go for higher education and end up sacrificing like always women have to in each phase of life. Many parents and society consider teenage pregnancy as a mistake and insulting and a taboo commonly seen in the ages of 18 to 25.
There are other difficulties faced like personal, social, psychological, etc. but still, they don’t have anyone by their side nor any proper system where they can address. If these challenges arise at least the family should be by their side to make them feel better because no one else can do so, and these issues need to be discussed between parents and their children because issues can be solved when we are together and not apart. And if a teen wants to continue studying, she should be encouraged and not make her feel unwanted. There should be an effective system for these problems because at the start they are problems but slowly it becomes a challenge and then issues so it should be addressed at the beginning.Teenage pregnancy is considered taboo by the family and society . Most of the country Hide the rate of teenage pregnancy in their country for The prestige and respect. Jingle time of pregnancy even not getting support from the family side there friend and close relatives.
According to the survey, 12 million girls aged 15–19 years and at least 777,000 girls under 15 years give birth each year in developing regions. This is most happening in developing countries. Complications during pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death for 15–19-year-old girls globally.
During teenage pregnancy the pregnant mother go through many difficulties and pain both physical and mental. Adolescence mother is between 9 to 19 face higher risks of eclampsia, puerperal endometritis, and systemic infections inrispective to the mother aged 19 to 25 . And the babies of adolescent mothers face higher risks of low birth weight, preterm delivery and severe neonatal conditions. Early childbearing can increase risks for new-borns as well as young mothers. Babies born to mothers under 20 years of age face higher risks of low birth weight, preterm delivery and severe neonatal conditions.
Due to teenage pregnancy the woman is required to drop out their studies as now she is supposed to focus on childbearing and face setting problem like:-
-Unmarried pregnant adolescents may include stigma, rejection or violence by partners, parents and peers.
-Girls who become pregnant before the age of 18 years are more likely to experience violence within a marriage or partnership.
WHO works closely with partners within and outside the United Nations system to contribute to the global effort to prevent children becoming wives and mothers. Now, WHO works closely with the UNICEF, UNFPA and UNWomen on a global programme to accelerate action to end child marriage.22 It also collaborates with Family Planning 2020 ─ a global partnership working to enable 120 million more women .
But talking about our country, still there are many region where child marriage is still have its existence. Where girls are supposed to give birth to child in small age , where a girl get married after 18. in India the parents and the teacher forbidden the sex education of the child. Due to which the Teenage do not have proper knowledge about the consequences of teenage pregnancy, and don’t have much knowledge Of protected method they should use . Which is the common reason to address the Teenage pregnancy in India.Of recently, India has been successful in reduceding the proportion of pregnancy between 15-19 years to half. Still, the estimation by UNFPA runs to 11.8 million teenage pregnancy in our country. Earrly marriage is the biggest cause for the problem of teenage pregnancies im our country. It inevitably put the adolescent girls at the risk of being pregnant. The low contraceptive awareness also makes the problem more graver and serious. High fertility and discontinued education after marriage remain the other concern. but the greatest threat of teenage pregnancy is higher rate of pregnancy-related complications, which leads to high mortality.
Through mass awareness and legislation, India has tried to mitigate the burden of early marriage somehow. But the age old patriarchal setup in our society along with the cultural influences have been a major impediments. In addition, adolescent girls are being introduced to basic knowledge of menstrual health as a sincere effort to come out of social taboos. Even then, their families are not in favour of practicing what the girls were taught, suggesting that mere training/ knowledge cannot bring about changes in social perception in the country.3 With the introduction of peer educators, India is expecting to bridge this gap and addressing a sensitive social and medical issue like teenage pregnancy.
Policies and programs to delay marriage can potentially help break the intergenerational cycle of undernutrition through many routes. “Unfortunately, in India, early marriage and subsequent pregnancy is often not a deliberate choice, but rather the result of an absence of choices, and of circumstances beyond a girl’s control,” says IFPRI Senior Research Fellow and study co-author, Purnima Menon. Indeed, the Teenage Girls Survey 2018 (TAG Survey) by Naandi Foundation, a direct conversation with girls across India, shows that 73.3 percent of teenage girls want to marry only after the age of 21, which is a heartening news, but also highlights the mismatch between their aspirations and the reality of early marriage. “Continuing schooling, exploring employment opportunities, and delaying marriage and pregnancy are challenges for India’s girls that are reinforced through patriarchy and social norms.”In a society where sex is a taboo and sex education in schools still remains a matter of debate, teenage pregnancies create a furore…provided it is outside wedlock. Given that child marriages are significant contributors towards early pregnancies, societal stigma against such conceptions is not in the light of the numerous health risks involved, but rather that they are pre-marital. They are unsanctioned because they occur outside the patriarchal institution of marriage.
Globally, around 15% of women bear children under the age of 18, states UNICEF. Early pregnancy hinders the natural maturation of girls into adulthood and exposes them to numerous health risks. They have a higher chance of developing pregnancy induced hyper-tension, preeclampsia and other pregnancy complications. Childbirth and pregnancy complications are the leading causes of death among girls aged 15 to 19, globally. Not only the mother but the child is also at considerable risk. Children born to adolescent mothers are more likely to suffer from acute neonatal conditions and low birth weight.
The social consequences are equally dire. Studies show that teenage mothers are more exposed to intimate partner violence. They also discontinue their education thereby losing eligibility for a lot of employment opportunities. Financial strain often makes childcare problematic making both the adolescent parent and child prone to malnutrition. Teenagers who conceive outside wedlock are most often forsaken by their families and hence pushed to poverty. In certain other cases, they are exposed to unsafe and illegal abortion practices which ultimately threaten their lives.
In many cases, teenage pregnancy can be avoided by preventing child marriages. Legal action in cohesion with social awareness can reap great changes in the society. Adults who contract, solemnise and/or promote child marriages are punished under The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 in India. In addition to legal intervention, many NGOs such as CRY, Saarthi Trust and Girls Not Brides actively fight against eradicating child marriage in India. At the same time, since poverty and child marriage are closely linked, governmental schemes that focus on alleviating economic strain and facilitating social progress act as preventive measures.
The incidence of pregnancy outside of marriage can be tackled only through the introduction of sex-education in schools. It has been found that balanced and realistic sex education programmes have helped sexually active teenagers in the United States to either postpone intercourse or adopt safe sex practices. These programmes have been found to neither increase sexual activity nor initiate early sexual activity. Not only does this reduce teenage pregnancies, it also drastically decreases the contraction of sexually transmitted diseases. Awareness on sexual abuse, sexuality, gender identities and consent is also achieved.
In India, sex- education was made a part of school curriculum in 2018. The curriculum aimed at imparting, in age-appropriate manner, understanding of good touch and bad touch, mental health, reproductive health, STDs, injury and violence among others. Yet, the topic still remains a taboo. The National Education Policy 2019 was criticised for not sufficiently addressing sex-education in schools. It is unfortunate that sex-education is still dismissed as being immoral and against Indian culture. Though having a discussion in the first place is seen as progress, we as a society must pick up the pace.
No, the society we live in runs in a vicious cycle of judgement, people here often make things worse for the people who’ve been suffering rather than helping them out.
The number of teenage pregnancies has increased alot by today, the reason may be rape, or underage sex teenage pregnancies have been increased by the year and our government have no ways to handle that.
First of all almost no one wants to become a mother in her teens, so people should start understanding that it’s not at all her choice to choose the life she have.
Studies say that over 11.8 teenage women across the country were found to be mothers or pregnant by the age of 15-19, the reason of it might be child marriage, rape, or underage sex.
Yes, the country need to end the practice of teenage pregnancy, and i think it would be possible only and only if everyone be it boys or girls would be taught sex education in their teen years, if they’d know the consequences or ill effects of teenage pregnancy and would be well educated about the topic, more half of the problem would come to an end, teenage pregnancy involves a lot of risk, having a child while you itself are living your childhood years is depressing, it also has serious complications to mothers life and also the baby’s life. People need to address the need to end this practice. Also, the society should stop demonizing a woman for what she’s suffering through and need to be protective and supportive enough.There should be effective system of teenage pregnancies because their is 20 percent of the teenage women who are pregnant. Teenage pregnancy is the pregnancy when female age is 20 and the causes of teenage pregnancies are lack of information about reproductive health, sexual violence, child marriage, forced marriage, lack of education and more. There are many risk factor of teenage pregnancy like single parent, health problems, mental health problems, etc. In developing countries the main risk is poor health care and malnutrition and 90% of teenage pregnancies are happens in developing countries. Many females are scared of social issues, social stigma, norms, beliefs, etc. Teenage pregnancies complications due to cause of low birth weight and mortality. Due to complications most of the teenage pregnancies may leads with death, therefore the precautions and knowledge of reproductive health is very important. Teenage pregnancy may effects from social and health effects like stress, depression, guilty, lower genital tract infections, hypertension and more. To prevent teenage pregnancy their should be health education, lack of awareness about diseases and infections, family life education, knowledge of Contraception. In developing countries their should be campaigns and organizations to make awareness about reproductive health and rights, so that they will take precautions and prevent the teenage pregnancy.
We require a more effective system to address teenage pregnancy government and private hospitals need to take some effective steps regarding this. the teenage pregnancy can be very complicated and not easy, even a girl has the pressure how will everybody react and how would she manage everything, mostly teenage pregnancy is unplanned. Even if a woman and her partner are not financially stable then it can bring a lot of problems and complications. Even not all offices provide paid pregnancy leave. Even according to research teenage women who are accepting get problems related to the body so good care and timely consultation from the doctors require which will help to do everything. Couples should not take decisions in enthusiasm because it can create problems in the future every aspect should be discussed. College should keep awareness programs so teenagers get information and they can get a clear decision. Even UN women organization is taking efforts to end child marriage. UNFPA estimated that more than 10 million women get pregnant in teenage in our country, this number needs to decrease, the government should come up with policies. In rural areas it is taught to teenage women having a baby is god’s blessing so we should keep the blessing instead of asking them are ready for lifetime responsibility, the reason behind it is illiteracy, following religious norms, patriarchy. Some women get pregnant twice back-to-back which is nothing. An effective system will help and it should be present in every region of our country, so women don’t need to travel long distances being pregnant.
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