Upper West tops in teenage pregnancy
A research initiated by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has established that the Upper West Region recorded the highest teenage pregnancy prevalence rate between 2012 and 2014.
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According to the research’s regional assessment, 15 out of every hundred teenagers in the region got pregnant between 2012 and 2014.
Initiated in 2015, the research focussed on mapping teenage pregnancy in Ghana.
It ascertained that the Volta, Brong Ahafo, Central and the Eastern regions all recorded the second highest teenage pregnancy prevalence rate of 14 per cent each.
Furthermore, the research indicated that the five regions had recorded the highest teenage pregnancy prevalence rate for the past three years.
Causes and effects
Even though the research could not explain the cause of the increasing rate of teenage pregnancy, particularly in the above-mentioned regions, it mentioned inter-generational transfer of poverty and the teenager’s inability to negotiate contraceptive use as major contributory factors.
On the effects of teenage pregnancy, the research demonstrated that teenage mothers were often more constrained in their ability to pursue educational opportunities as compared to teenagers who were not mothers.
It said teenage pregnancy was the major cause of maternal morbidity and pregnancy-related complications, explaining that expectant mothers between the ages of 14 and 19 stood a death risk of four times higher than those 20 years and above.
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According to the research, teenage pregnancy was also the leading cause of child mortality and stillbirths in the regions.
Increase collaboration
At a stakeholders meeting in Accra to review the research report and map out intervention strategies, the sector minister, Nana Oye Lithur, expressed worry over the increasing prevalence rate of teenage pregnancy in the country.
She, therefore, advocated for an increased collaboration between governmental, non-governmental organisations and development partners to address the public health and economic menace of teenage pregnancy.
Nana Lithur said such collaboration was necessary to bridge the existing gaps in the current national and regional response programming aimed at addressing the problem of teenage pregnancy in the country.
She identified such gaps to include intervention programmes focusing heavily on providing information rather than offering intervention services, scarcity of research on the disparity of teenage pregnancy among regions and districts and the less concentration on educational research and policy development that focuses on sexual and reproductive health issues.
Preventive measures
She recommended strengthening secondary preventive efforts such as education, employment and support services aimed at helping mother and child, particularly, single mothers.
“Sex education must be provided before young people become sexually active, with open attitudes and a positive approach to sexual health relationships, she said.
The sector minister expressed the ministry’s commitment to working with all stakeholders in the public and private sectors to address the phenomenon of teenage pregnancy in Ghana.
For his part, a health advisor for the Department for International Development (DFID), Mr Shawmwill Issah, said the UK government had released £20 million pounds to support reproductive health in Ghana from 2013 to 2016.
According to him, £11 million pounds of the total amount is meant for adolescent reproductive health, £6 million for family planning commodities while the remaining £3 million pounds is for reproductive health capacity building.
Writer’s email Doreen.andoh@graphic.com.gh