Teenage Pregnancy: Causes, Consequences, and Initiatives

Pregnancy for high school girls has been a problem of girls’ education in the world. When a girl gets pregnant while studying she drops out. In many African countries, a lot of young girls gets pregnant before the right age in which sometimes it affects her life in one way or another as some of them fail to continue with their studies and others die during delivery due to their age in which they face a lot of complication during the pre-natal stage. Therefore, on this research the purpose to find the causes and effects of early pregnancy among young girls. And in this study, we take a look especially to Tanzanian girls their daily activities and see how their activities can cause an increase of teenage pregnancy. According to WHO, approximately14-15 a million teenage girls and young women become mothers every year, and this account for more than 10% of birth worldwide. Early pregnancy is the result of unprotected sexual practices and the mean age of first sexual practice is considered to be 13 years. Early pregnancy in Tanzania is a very huge problem among young girls. teenage pregnancy in Tanzania has been associated with school dropout among young girls n Tanzania. According to IRIN, as quoted on the women living and Muslim law website; school dropout in Tanzania is much higher in girls than boys and the common reason is early pregnancy .in 2006, about 44742 dropped out of primary school,7734 dropped out of secondary schools over 60% being girls.

This research aims at contributing knowledge to the government and other non-government sectors in proving the solution on how the problem of early pregnancy in Tanzania and to establish policies which will different sectors.

The objectives of this research are:

General objective:

The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of teenage pregnancies which occur in many young girls in many African countries which cause a lot of school dropouts and in other cases lead to an increase in the death rate during delivery

Specific objectives:

• To know the impacts of teenage pregnancies among young girls and how their life changes after undergoing teenage pregnancy
• To take a look on the causes of teenage pregnancies in many African societies
• To investigate how parents and different sectors protect these young girls from getting pregnant before the right time

In this research there are different questions that need to be answered which are:

1. What are the effects of teenage pregnancy?
2. What are the factors stimulate the increase of teenage pregnancies?
3. Who is responsible for increase of teenage pregnancies?
4. How do parents protect their children from getting pregnant?

A literature review compiles and evaluates the research available on a certain topic or issue that you are researching and writing about. After passing different works of literature I have just found different authors trying to explain the problem of early pregnancies among young Africans. Prior studies have identified many reasons for teenage pregnancies in Tanzania.

A teenage pregnancy, as defined by the American Pregnancy Association, is a pregnancy that occurs for a woman under the age of 20. A quarter of girls aged 17 years have already begun child-bearing in Tanzania; this figure increases to almost 40 percent by age 18. In a subsequent report by UNICEF. There are several causes of teenage pregnancy in many African countries which are;

Poverty has been the biggest driver for the increase in the number of early pregnancies among young girls, especially in African countries. Poverty is a condition where people's basic needs for food, clothing, shelter, and others like education, health, and security are not being met. Young girls in the lowest wealth are three times more likely to have started childbearing than those in the highest wealth (42 percent versus 12 percent). Most of the Tanzanian people leave below 1$ which most of them do not meet their basic needs hence young girls force themselves in selling their bodies in order to get money to attain their basic needs. Transactional sex with older men can be one of the few available sources of income that allows adolescent girls to meet their basic needs, making it a common choice for many girls, even though it increases the risk of unintended pregnancy.

Therefore, a lot of young girls get pregnant and the ones who impregnate them tend to abandon them sometimes they fail to recognize the father of their children since they sleep with different men. With 67.9 percent of the total population living under the poverty line, the government does not have the resources needed to provide social services to the poorest communities.

Cultural norms can also be because of teenage pregnancies among young girls, Unequal power between boys and girls and men and women is one of the drivers of early pregnancy. In relation to early pregnancies, it often manifests itself in the form of rape and coercive sex. Due to cultural norms, girls are being denied their right for attending school hence they are being forced to stay at home and get married hence this causes an increase in the number of early pregnancies

Tanzania has worked very hard to make sure that teenagers are being given family planning education in order to protect them from early pregnancy but due to some factors, the education does not reach to the intended people. Family Planning Association of Tanzania has been attempting to set up youth-friendly family planning centers(UMATI) unfortunately these services do not reach to the teenagers because of the fear of being considered “promiscuous’ upon attending the family planning clinics, few urbanized UMATI clinics and lack of awareness on the right to access contraceptive services among girls. Teenagers who become pregnant in Tanzania have low levels of education and tend to live in areas where access to health services is relatively poor. In an environment where discussions about sex and sexuality remain taboo, it is little wonder that teenage girls are unable to make a healthy and safe transition to adulthood. In the most recent Demographic and Health Survey 2015/16, only one in ten adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 were using any modern method of contraception. Miller demonstrated through his research that teenagers who have a good education and professional goals are more likely to postpone sexual activity, to use contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancies, and to place children for adoption than girls with lower targets in terms of education.

Early marriage is an indicator of the regular exposure of young women to the risk of pregnancy. Populations in which the age at first marriage is low tends to have higher teenage pregnancy rates. One in three women in Tanzania marries before their 18th birthday. For example, forced early marriages are seen particularly popular in the rural areas where many parents eagerly give their young daughters out because of the dowry.

When children grow up, they start spending more time with their friends and less time with their parents. As a result, friends can influence a child's thinking and behavior. This is the meaning of peer pressure. Peer pressure can be a positive influence for example when it motivates your child to do well in school, or to become involved in sports or other activities. On the other hand, peer pressure can be a negative influence for example, when it prompts your child to try smoking, drinking, using drugs, or to practice unsafe sex or other risky behaviors.

There are several consequences one can face due to teenage pregnancy which are like:

1. Lack of family support, Wamoyi et al. discuss how parent-child relationships are undermined when a daughter faces an unplanned pregnancy as it leads to a reduction of social respectability for both the family and the girl in sub-Saharan Africa. if the pregnant daughter has siblings, it is noted that parents would prefer to spend time with them, causing emotional distress on such girls due to feelings of isolation.
2. Complication during delivery.
3. Led to school drop out, According to WHO, pregnant female students are coerced to drop out of school, consequently abandoning career aspirations due to embarrassment, physical demands of pregnancy and childbirth, or expelled by school administration.
4. Increase in the number of street children since the mother does not afford taking care of the child.
5. Led to the destruction of the career.

Different initiatives have been made to solve the problem of teenage pregnancy and these initiatives are like:

• The development of the national adolescent reproductive health strategies (2001-2006) and (2010-2015)

The Adolescent Health and Development Strategy (ARSH), (2001-2006) aimed at improving the overall quality of life for adolescents. The strategy provided a framework to guide the government, NGOs, and private sector partners in addressing adolescent health and development in Tanzania. The strategy outlines a range of services needed by young people in Tanzania, including information and education on adolescent development and sexual and reproductive health and rights issues; information and education on basic health and lifestyles; contraceptive services,

• Prevention and Awareness in School of HIV/AIDS (PASHA) program

The Prevention and Awareness in Schools of HIV/AIDS (PASHA) was an initiative of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, (MoEVT) of Tanzania. The project was implemented in collaboration with the German Government through GIZ formally GTZ as part of the Tanzanian German Programme to Support Health (TGPSH). The project generally started in 2003 and reached Morogoro Region in 2005 and ended in 2013.

Many studies have tried to show the causes of teenage pregnancy, and effects of teenage pregnancy but most of the NGOs failed to provide sexual education to children by the fear of African culture for example when they are teaching sexual education they fail to demonstrate the use of condoms due to the fact that a lot of parents does not want their children the use of protection like condoms because they fear that their children will be morally decayed and will start involving themselves on sexual contact before their age hence this study is going to cover that gap

In conclusion, Tanzania is one of the African countries which face the problem of teenage pregnancy among young girls and this is mostly due to a lack of family planning and less use of contraceptives. Due to teenage pregnancy, many girls tend to discontinue with their studies which leads to the increase of illiterate people and an increase in poverty at the end of the day led to the increase of street children in which their parents fail to provide their basic needs hence they are supposed to go to the street to beg for money in order to attain their basic needs.

References

1. URT (2012). Population and Housing Census Population Distribution by administrative. National Bureau of Statics, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
2. UNICEF (2008).Young People and Family Planning: Teenage Pregnancy. Fact Sheet Compiled by UNICEF Malaysia Communications, Malaysia
3. UNFPA (2013). State of the World Population Report Motherhood in Childhood Facing the Challenge of Adolescent Pregnancy. UNFPA, New York, USA.
4. UNFPA (2009). Adolescents Sexual and Reproductive Health Toolkit for Humanitarian Setting. A Companion To the Inter Agency Field Manual on Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Setting. UNFPA, New York, USA.
5. Wamoyi, J. et al. (2010). Parent-child communication about sexual and reproductive health in rural Tanzania: Implications for young people's sexual health interventions. Reproductive Health,
6. WHO. (2007). Adolescent Pregnancy: Unmet Needs and Undone Deeds.
7. Kothari, C. (2003). Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques. New Age International (P) Ltd, New Delhi.