I recently
saw a girl in clinic with terrible complications following a caesarean section.
The operation had been botched and she had an infection around her uterus. She
was in terrible pain and critically unwell. This was in the children’s clinic;
the girl was 14 years old.
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| Image credit: Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images |
This
scenario is all too common. She is just one of the thousands of adolescent
girls estimated to have become pregnant this year in Sierra Leone. In 2013 the
country had the 7th
highest teenage pregnancy rate in the world, 38% of women aged 20-24 had
their first baby before the age of 18. Sierra Leone is by no means an
exception. Worldwide teenage pregnancy is a huge issue, 11% of births
globally are to women aged 15-19, with the majority of these taking place
in low- and middle-income countries.
From a
medical point of view, teenage pregnancy is terribly risky. Teenage mothers are
estimated to be 40-60% more likely to die in childbirth. Their babies are 50%
more likely to be stillborn or die shortly after birth than babies born to
mothers in their 20s.
Terrifying
medical complications aside, it can be devastating socially and economically
for adolescent mums. In 2015, when schools in Sierra Leone reopened after the
Ebola crisis, the minister for education banned
visibly pregnant girls from school and sitting exams. This discriminatory
ban persists and has been strongly condemned by, among others, Amnesty
International.
A “bridging
system” was started where girls can seek alternative education elsewhere, but
the disruption remains huge. Often girls will be prevented from sitting exams
and need to repeat a whole year of school, meaning many will not go back at
all. This discriminates against the girls, but not the men who get them
pregnant. After giving birth they face continued problems reintegrating into
their schools of choice. Continue here
News credit: The guardian
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