By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The National Health Department has once again raised concerns over the increasing rate of teenage pregnancies around the country.
“As the Department of Health, we are very concerned about the increasing number of teen mothers because this has potential to affect their future as some of them may be forced to take a break from academics and look after their babies,” says Health spokesperson Foster Mohale.
This comes after more than 145 teen mothers gave birth across the country.
The National Health Department on Tuesday confirmed that 1708 babies were born on Christmas Day in the Country.
This compared to 1414 babies that were delivered on Christmas Day in 2022.
Gauteng delivered 387 healthy babies followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 255, Western Cape with 231 , Eastern Cape with 221, Limpopo with 209, North West with 121, Mpumalanga with 161, Free State with 76 and Northern Cape with 47.
Mohale says the Department has established a sexual and reproductive health awareness campaign, that is meant to help empower young people to make use of health services with contraceptives and the prevention of sexually transmitted infections and diseases.
“As part of efforts to address the low uptake of health services amongst young people, the Department has established dedicated areas called youth friendly zones in the primary health care facilities to ensure that young people do not wait in the queue with the rest of the patients and also get served by the young healthcare workers to openly discuss all their health needs.”
The government has implemented several strategies, such as making contraceptives available to girls as young as 12 years of age, but these are proving to be inadequate.
Experts suggested that such measures need to be supplemented by education – comprehensive sex education programmes in schools for both young boys and girls.
The latest adolescent pregnancy data shows that in 2020, about 67 000 teenagers aged 15-19 years gave birth, which represents a decline from 70 000 births in 2019. However, the rate of teenage pregnancies is still high, with an estimated 62 births per 1 000 women aged 15-19 years.
The Stats SA analysis also revealed that 660 of the roughly 34 000 teenage pregnancies between 2020 and 2021 involved girl children under the age of 13.
Data has revealed that this rate is significantly higher than the global average of 44 births per 1 000 women in the same age group. Moreover, it also revealed that 90 037 girls between the ages of 10-19 years gave birth from March 2021 to April 2022, across all provinces.
Meanwhile a teenager who was tied up and raped by two pupils on a school’s premises when she was eight years old is suing the government for R5.1 million in damages.