Plan to cut teen pregnancies
by Albert Brandford/DAILY NATION
Children as young as 12 are having sexual relationships, often unplanned or secretly, sometimes as part of a longer term relationship. – Gill Keep, senior policy officer of ChildLine, a British charity. by Albert Brandford DAILY NATION BRITAIN has the unenviable reputation as the country with the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Western Europe and the highest number of unmarried teenage mothers in the world. And, that is at a time when rates of teenage pregnancy have been falling all across Europe, and in some Caribbean countries, particularly in Barbados. But this social problem remains one of major concern worldwide and has been the subject of several governmental studies. The new British government’s social exclusion unit has recently reported on this all too common phenomenon and is scrutinising other countries’ plans to tackle an issue which costs its taxpayers as much as £10 billion each year. ChildLine’s report, submitted to the British government, paints a grim picture of a wide gap between teen’s theoretical knowledge of contraception and the reality. “Young people generally knew about the facts of life and contraception,” said Keep, “but they did not seem to have put their knowledge into practice. “In the main, young people’s early sexual experiences do not seem to be planned or even explicitly chosen.” Britain’s Health Minister Tessa Jowell has promised a raft of practical measures to halve the number of unwanted teenage pregnancies in England and Wales by the year 2010. They include housing teenage unmarried mothers in hostels, which provide advice on work and child care skills. Executive Director of the Barbados Family Planning Association (BFPA), Senator George Griffith, said while there was naturally some concern about the problem here, there was some satisfaction in a consistent decline in the rates from a high of 23.8 per cent in 1978 (teen births by percentage of total births), that had fallen by 1995 to 13.9 per cent. “We, in three years, should be able to bring it down by about 10 per cent of the current total births (3 234 at QEH, 1998).” Griffith noted a marginal increase in the past two years but felt it was not enough to cause alarm. “We expect, though, to see a marginal increase continuing based on the number of young people who fall within that reproductive age group. If you look at those, the majority of births really take place after age 16. You would see that there is about 60 per cent of teen births to persons who are above 16, and a very minimal figure is below 16. This is where we expect to see the marginal increase.” Figures covering the 21 years – 1977 to 1998 – from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital tell their own story: There were 17 708 teenage births, inclusive of two to 11-year-olds (1983, 1987); seven to 12-year-olds; 44 to 13-year-olds; 293 to 14-year-olds, 931 to 15- year-olds; and 2 240 to 16-year-olds. Teen abortions at the QEH during the same period totalled 2 720, inclusive of five by 11-year-olds; 28 by 12-year-olds; 88 by 13- year-olds; 271 by 14-year-olds; 444 by 15- year-olds; and 571 by 16-year-olds. Nationally, according to the Statistical Department, between 1977-1998, there were 16 113 teen births of a total of 89 105, with the annual percentages reflecting Griffith’s “consistent decline”. He said that to set a national reduction level as the British have done would require several institutions within the society accepting that young people are having sex: the church, the educational system, and parents. “And, that it is all right for us to say that you should abstain until you are physically and emotionally mature enough to deal with it. “We must bear in mind, however, that not all persons wish to abstain and that not all will be disciplined enough to stay out of situations which could lead to sexual activity. “So we have to say to young people, if you are not going to abstain then you should practise safe sex, use a condom, use the pill.” Referring to recent Press reports which suggested there were 23 pregnant girls at school, Griffith said when it was considered they were spread across 22 secondary schools, then the number was “negligible” and the report “a little bit alarmist”. Griffith, who is also chairman of the Child Care Board, said the area of greatest concern was that everytime there was an unplanned, premature pregnancy that person would have been exposed to the HIV virus, “and that is our greatest fear at this time”. Despite what seems a plethora of information, and sources of information, many teens still appear not to be assimilating what they see and hear. “We have to package the information differently,” Griffith suggested. “As opposed to selling people a concept about what is good for the country, we now have to repackage that and to demonstrate how it is not necessarily in their best interests to have too early a pregnancy.”
Following is the final part of a two-part feature on teenage pregnancies. The first part was carried in yesterday’s DAILY NATION. PEER pressure, pressure from boyfriends, too much alcohol and sheer opportunity have all played a part in unplanned teenaged births. And, according to Senator George Griffith, executive director of the Barbados Family Planning Association (BFPA), research shows that 80 per cent of teenagers having sex for the first time do so without contraceptives. “That is why we say expose them to the information that could lead them into situations where they could have unprotected sex.” Griffith noted that parents often reacted in a negative way, sometimes putting out pregnant girls. It is not a situation that is peculiar to Barbados as many teenagers in Britain told the charity, ChildLine, that they had been thrown out of home as soon as they told their parents. One 15-year-old girl told a ChildLine counsellor: “I’ve just found out I’m pregnant. My mum gave me three days to decide on an abortion. When I told her I wanted to keep it, she threw me out.” Griffith said parents should be responsible and perceptive and ought to know that in the same way that a child was growing up physiologically and academically that it was also maturing sexually. “And, there is nothing they can do to prevent the sexual drives from coming to the fore, which is why we say ‘arm the child with the information’.” He was, therefore, concerned about the quality and quantity of information reaching both teenagers and parents. Education “There is still need for a massive education programme because everybody can tell you that having unprotected sex can lead to exposure to HIV but translating that into behaviour is another ball game.” Griffith said the stakeholders must repackage their information and help teenagers to understand how too early a pregnancy could impact on their lives. Such an impact would include “compromising their education, the difficulties they would experience in housing, and in maintaining themselves and that child, and the fact that in circumstances where the father of that child is also a teenager, then that would expose them to considerable difficulties from which they might never recover.” Openness The search for strategies to tackle teen pregnancies continue apace and varies from country to country. But in countries as disparate as the United States and The Netherlands, a key answer emerges: openness. Roger Ingham, who has done comparative studies of the two countries, noted: “If anything, as the results from recent assessments of sex education make clear, earlier and more open sex education is likely to lead to improved sexual health through more competent interactions.” The Netherlands, where there is social stigma attached to getting pregnant, has the lowest teen pregnancy rate in Europe. Children are taught openly about sex both at home and at school – and they are expected to deal with sex responsibly. Contraception is promoted for its health benefits by Dutch doctors. Many young women start using the Pill before they begin to have sex. In the United States, where 13 per cent of all births are to teenage mothers, there is no national policy on sex education, and there is a great variation in what is taught and politics plays a key role. The results are as mixed as the policies. At the same time as there is pressure to have sex at a young age, there is also a growing movement towards abstention before marriage. The US has reaped success with education programmes such as the National Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy, which aims to reduce teen pregnancy rates by one-third between 1996 and 2005. The success of Virginity Clubs, where young girls promise not to have sex before marriage, have also garnered much attention. Youth programme Griffith said the BFPA has a vibrant youth programme, including an Adolescent Parenting Project and Family Life Education and Peer Counselling, at three levels, for the last eight years. “Coming out of those programmes we have three vibrant youth groups: The Family Life Club, which was established in March 1992, and is committed to adolescent development issues; the Community Outreach Educators, who focus on the physically and mentally challenged as well as schools and communities; and the former Under-20s Club, now the Teens Life Club, which also focuses on adolescent development .” He said these three groups, working at different places, allow the BFPA to package the information in a very user-friendly manner. “We give them flexibility, technical support, and occasionally financial support, and the Family Life Club also has one radio programme per month.” But Grifith is concerned about sex education programmes and their limitations, which stem from the fact that some people who are required to teach have difficulty with sexuality issues and are not prepared to discuss them with young people who these days are rather forthright. “Guidance counsellors do a lot of this work, but they are still limited. I think that what we need is a Schools Social Worker, professionally-trained, in each school who would then supervise the work of the guidance counsellors.”
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