Prevention
There is unequivocal evidence that young women from disadvantaged back ground are more likely to be mothers early in life, and that women who become mothers early in life are more likely to be disadvantaged in adult life than those who do not. The extent to which these are independent of each other is less clear. Research suggests that preexisting disadvantages are compounded by having a child early in life and, regardless of the background, having a child early in life potentially confers additional risks in terms of hardships, over and above that socially inherited, especially with regard to lack of support, instability and isolation. Moreover, adverse materials and psycho-social aspects of women’s childhood experiences are repeated in their adult lives.
Interventions that are effective in preventing early motherhood and in mitigating the psychosocial consequences of having a child early in life have the potential to break the cycle of deprivation. However, a more thorough knowledge is required of the factors that can alleviate the effects of social-economic adversity, social isolation and lack of support, and the processes and pathways in the transfer of disadvantages from one generation to the next.
There is no single causes for rising rates of adolescent pregnancy, but rather a combination of factors. These can be generally grouped under biological, societal, personal attitude/needs, ignorance/ misunderstanding concerning sexual matters and problems inherent in modern contraceptive methods.
In spite of the implementation of the available policies and other related laws, teenage pregnancies remain quite high in Uganda, especially in rural areas mostly due low access to reproductive health services and lack of sexuality education
STRATEGIES IN TACKLING TEENAGE PREGNANCY
Primary prevention
Intervention and strategies
- Clear massages to the young people about early sex and its associated risks, Contraception’s, STIs and availability of advice.
- Involve every stakeholders in the community including teenagers themselves, religious and cultural leaders if the country/countries are to overcome this problem of teenage pregnancy.
- Early childhood intervention for pre-and primary school children and their parents, youth development programmes promoting social and academic skills
- Personal and academic support, parental involvement in conflict resolution
- Implantation of wider measures to tackle social disadvantages and poverty among young people to lower teenage pregnancy rates and promote long-term social inclusion.
- Sex and relationships education to enable development of positive and safe personal and sexual relationships.
- Confidential contraceptive services
- Discussion between young people and their parents about sex and relationships.
- Sex and relationships education, healthy schools and school-based health services
- Encouraging abstinence and delay as approaches to sexual ill-health
- Stay at school campaign and programmes
- Amplification of sexuality Education and other reproductive health services and rights including rights for girls and women to have a choice of their sexual partner, use of condom and other better choice of family planning methods
Secondary prevention
Reducing social exclusion rates among teenage parents and their children
- Supporting pregnant teenagers and teenage mothers: the sure start plus initiative
- Ensuring education and child care for young mothers
- Housing difficulties for teenage parents and their children
- Involving young men
- A maternity, support for teenage parents and their children provision
- Access to HIV Counselling and personal advisers provision of individualized support packages
- Economic empowerment ,financial literacy training and skilling of teen mothers
- SRH Clinics
A TEEN MOTHER TELLS HER STORY
I WISH I HAD KNOWLEDGE ABOUT AND ACCESS TO BIRTH CONTROL METHODS, MY EDUCATION WOULDN’T BE AT A STANDSTILL NOW
“Am Nakigudde Daphine a resident of Mabale village Luwero district, I have one child who is two years old. I was 14 years when I got pregnant and by that time I was in primary seven and I didn’t know anything about family planning or the use of contraceptives. In my primary six, I got a boyfriend who was in senior three, I used to meet him whenever we were going home in the evening after school time and we do sex without using condoms because I was told by my friends at school that condoms cause cervical cancer. Even when I insisted my boyfriend told me that he did not have money to buy the condoms, he went on to tell me that having sex without a condom is a sign of true love. When I reached primary seven, I started feeling sick every morning. I was vomiting a lot which made my teachers suspect that I was pregnant and took me for a pregnancy test. It was discovered that I was pregnant, they called my parents to school and I was expelled from school.
Life became difficult for me, my mum started to beat me every day and asked me about the boy who was responsible for my pregnancy, my father also chased me away from home after giving birth. I went to look for my boyfriend’s house but he also ran away from the village and I don’t know where he is up to now, I think he feared imprisonment or the responsibility of taking care of me and my child. I went to my aunt but she has been abusing me verbally since day one when I came to her home, and I find it hard to get basic needs for my child. my Aunt also told me that I would be sleeping in the kitchen because I had been cursed by my parents.
One morning around March 2022, our village VHT came to our home with peer educators and other staff from an Organization called Teen Mothers and Reproductive Health Program. I narrated my story to them, although I was afraid my Aunt would not hear me and chase me from home. They took me to my parents and convinced them to allow me back home with my kid and they promised to give me some basic needs, they also enrolled me in hairdressing training.
I had a dream of becoming a Nurse but my parents refused to take me back to school saying that I “am now a fellow parent like them” I received a call from the Teen Mothers organization and invited me to their offices at Kasana Luwero one day, I found there other young girls with their babies, they taught us about sex education and shared with us knowledge on family planning. They taught us how to use a condom and the importance of preventing unwanted pregnancies and contracting STIs such as HIV, I can’t now take chances, I make informed decisions.
I encourage young people to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS and early pregnancies. They should seek available family planning services, especially the use of condoms, testing for HIV, and abstinence to live a responsible and dignified life.”