Pregnant Adolescent : Is there sense in contraceptives use on young girls?

How easy would it be to discuss sexuality issues with teenage girls to prevent them from getting unwanted pregnancies? Or does it make sense administering family planning methods on sexually active young girls? Adewale Oshodi discusses these with health professionals as the world celebrates the 2013 United Nations’ World Population Day, which focuses on adolescent pregnancy.
It is no longer news that over seven billion people now live on the planet, with Nigeria’s population being around 170million. The economic and social implication of this is enormous. Apart from the fact that there will be more mouths to feed, there will also be a strain on social infrastructures.
More people will need healthcare services, more children will be enrolled in schools; more people will need housing, while more people will ply the roads, leading to an increase in traffic congestions on the roads. It is as a result of this that the United Nations (UN) has been at the fore-front of championing the need to curb population explosion, and that is why it made July 11 every year as the World Population Day, in order to create awareness on the need to bring population boom under control.
For this year, the United Nations is focusing on adolescent pregnancies. It is estimated that about 16 million girls under age 18 give birth each year. Another 3.2 million undergo unsafe abortions in order to keep their pregnancies a secret.
But, there are many reasons why young girls, apart from those who are married as a result of religious and cultural beliefs, get unwanted pregnancies. Most of the girls usually want to try out sex, without protecting themselves.
However, adolescent girls, like their male counterparts, are the future of any country, and they need to be guided in the right direction. Getting pregnant could, therefore, derail their future aspirations.
While it could be difficult to stop these girls from trying out sex by monitoring their movements, parents could actually introduce to them family planning, one of the strategies being employed by the United Nations to prevent unwanted pregnancies, and this could also go a long way in saving the lives of girls who usually attempt abortions after becoming pregnant.
This view is supported by the Oyo State Team Leader of the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI), Mrs Stella Akinso. NURHI, an organisation being backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, uses family planning strategies to prevent unwanted pregnancies, maternal and child mortalities, while also aiding the economic and social welfare of families.
While speaking on this year’s World Population Day theme, Pregnant Adolescent , Mrs Akinso admitted that the rate at which young girls are getting pregnant in the country today is so high, and it is high time something was done to curb the trend.
“While parental neglect cannot by totally ruled out, we must not forget that today’s children are so crafty, and when they set their minds to do something, they would definitely achieve such. So some of these children try out sex and in the process, they get pregnant.
“There are others who are taken advantage of by older men, and it should surprise no one that there are many 12-year-olds who are now mothers,” Mrs Akinso said, while admitting that family planning is one of the ways through which such pregnancies could be curbed.
“For the teenage girl who has the awareness that trying out sex could result in pregnancy, insisting on her partner using the condom would help prevent unwanted pregnancy.
Even, for those who are taken advantage of, Mrs Akinso said if they had been lectured about family planning, and had been using one of the different methods of the initiative, then no matter how bad it is, they won’t get pregnant, which is the biggest problem in this situation.
“Most people feel family planning is only for married people; even some literate people also have this erroneous view, but family planning is for everyone. Apart from the fact that it helps control unwanted pregnancies, it can also help prevent the contraction of sexually transmitted diseases,” the Oyo NURHI boss said, while charging parents to educate their children about sexuality issues.
Her views were also corroborated by Dr Monday Famakin, the national vice president of the Family Planning Providers Network (FPPN), who also lamented the rise in the number of baby mothers in the country.
“If we are talking about a teenage girl being sexually active, then what prevents us from administering family planning methods on her to prevent unwanted pregnancy?,” Dr Famakin asked.
“We should, therefore, enlighten more parents not to see their children as being too young to know about sexuality issues because what parents are not telling them, they are learning from other sources,” Dr Famakin said.