Friday, 4 April 2025

13 353 TEENS IMPREGNATED LAST YEAR

Jaackie Ngarandd with a 14-year-old impregnated in Murewa

About 13 353 teenagers were impregnated in Manicaland last year, marking a worrying trend in which 55 learners completely dropped out of school, including three who were at primary level, The Manica Post has learnt.

The statistics, though worrisome, present a slight drop from 14 027 teenage pregnancies recorded in 2023.

The stunning revelations also came in the wake of 161 young girls abandoning school to get married, 12 of which were at primary school level.

This was revealed by National Aids Council (NAC) Manicaland provincial monitoring and evaluation officer, Mr Sibert Hlatywayo in a presentation during the NotInMyVillage campaign launch held last Friday.

Mr Hlatywayo said the 13 353 teenagers were impregnated across the seven districts in Manicaland, with Chipinge and Mutare Rural leading the pack.

Although the 13 353 was a slight drop from the 14 027 cases recorded in 2023, concerns remain high about teenage pregnancies and marriages in the province.

Factors driving teenage pregnancies and child marriages in Manicaland include sexual abuse, violence, lack of sexual health education and poverty as well as harmful religious and cultural norms and practices.

“On teenage pregnancy and fertility rates, historically we have high teenage pregnancy rates in Manicaland. From 2018, the prevalence of teenage pregnancies was as high as 27 percent, which was even higher than the national average of 20 percent.

“From 2024 alone, we have seen from statistics in our database that we had almost 161 girls who dropped out of school because of pregnancies and child marriages. The implication of this is that they are creating vulnerability for the girl child and missed opportunities. They are also missing out on education, health and economic opportunities.

“Looking at the school dropouts for 2024, we lost 149 in secondary schools and 12 in primary schools because of child marriages. These are Grade Sevens and below. In terms of pregnancies, we have three reported at primary level and 53 at secondary school,” he said.

Mr Hlatywayo’s report revealed that of the 13 353 teenage pregnancies, 1 459 were recorded in Buhera District, while 2 082 were recorded in Makoni.

Mutasa District had 1 587, while Nyanga recorded 1 093 cases. City of Mutare recorded 384 teenage pregnancies, while Chimanimani had 1 291 in 2024.

Mr Hlatywayo said Mutare and Chipinge districts recorded the highest number of teenage pregnancies both in 2023 and 2024.

“We had the highest number of teenage pregnancies in 2023 and 2024 in Chipinge and Mutare Rural respectively. In Chipinge, we had 3 838 and 3 239 teenage pregnancies in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Mutare was the second highest with 2 279 and 2 250 cases in 2023 and 2024 respectively, hence the decision for us to pioneer the NotInMyVillage campaign in these districts in province,” he said.

Apart from teenage pregnancies and child marriages, 254 and 188 girls from the province dropped out of secondary and primary education due to financial difficulties while 59 dropped out of both primary and secondary school due to illness.

Manicaland Provincial Education Director (PED), Mr Richard Gabaza said schools were doing their best to educate girls of the dangers of falling pregnant while at school.

“We have Guiding and Counselling sessions in all our schools that take care of that area, educating our learners on the consequences of falling pregnant while still in school. They teach the learners on the importance of finishing their school first before becoming parents.

“Statutory Instrument 13 of 2025 also has provision for that. As schools, we preach the gospel of anti-child pregnancy or anti-pregnancy in school. However, in the event that it happens, the SI provides that the child should remain in school until such a time the pregnancy is heavy, and they are allowed to go and deliver.

“The Statutory Instrument is also in support of the Constitution itself, and in terms of the Education Act, Section 68 also provides for non-exclusion of the girl child who gets pregnant while at school, stipulating that such a child should not be sent home after falling pregnant, mindful of the fact that the circumstances could have been beyond her control,” said Mr Gabaza.

Renowned gynaecologist, Dr Miriam Kanyenze said teenage pregnancies often result in Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR) — also known as foetal growth restriction (FGR) — which occurs when a foetus fails to grow at the expected rate during pregnancy, resulting in a baby smaller than expected for gestational age.

“What happens is that effects of teenage pregnancy are massive and can cause a number of problems. I have categorised them into foetal and maternal, whether they are psychological or medical. On the foetal part, there are high chances of them delivering low birth weight babies, intrauterine growth restriction and also difficult deliveries because of poor development of their skeletal pelvis, leading to birth injuries and that is called CPD or obstructed labour.

“Also the baby can have anaemia because of poor nutrition of the mother. The mother is prone to pregnancy-induced blood pressure. They are more prone to preterm labour, leading to problems of prematurity. Some of the babies might have Neural Tube Defects (NTDs) — birth defects of the brain, spine, or spinal cord that occur when the neural tube, the structure that develops into the brain and spinal cord, does not close properly during early pregnancy.

“Psychologically, the mother might have low self-esteem, mental health stress, sadness and even suicidal thoughts. They can feel isolated, skip classes, assignments or projects leading to eventually dropping out. Because of the bones, especially in our set where we have poor development owing to poor social economic status, the mothers can labour at home and end up with obstructed labour, which lead to either fistulas. Obstetric Fistula is a serious childbirth injury characterised by an abnormal opening between the birth canal and bladder and/or rectum, which might also result in leaking urine or leaking faeces into the genital.

“They might also have caesarean section, which might lead to a lot of morbidity, where they have chronic pelvic pain. Some of them might not even have children afterwards as they may also die or have malnutrition that leads to anaemia. The other thing that we have seen with these teenage pregnancies is that they have very high chances of performing unsafe abortion. Compared to older age groups, they actually have 9,1 percent of having unsafe abortions compared to five percent of other populations,” she said.

Child rights activist, Ms Florence Mutake acknowledged that the statistics were disturbing, and emphasised the need to safeguard the rights of the girl child.

“These statistics are deeply saddening, as they represent young lives being negatively impacted by circumstances that are avoidable. If we ensure that these children are fully aware of the dangers of falling pregnant while in school, we can likely reduce these statistics. We must increase engagement,” said Ms Matuke. Manica Post

0 comments:

Post a Comment