Teenage pregnancy is silently killing the dreams of our girls
Essay from Jeremiah Lucas Opira Memorial Contest 2023
Oola Andrew Keith
3rd runner up, Category 3
Teenage pregnancy is termed as pregnancy that occurs amongst girls between 13 to 19. Teenage pregnancy is a problem that has spread widely like wildfire. In various parts of the country, especially rural areas where a lot of people may lack proper education and access to reproductive assistance in time.
First of all, I would like to state some of the factors that have contributed to the increasing levels of teenage pregnancy in different parts of Uganda. With experience from northern Uganda, I will also stress the negative outcomes associated with teenage pregnancy as well as solutions as to how we can minimize this problem. Some of the factors responsible for increasing pregnancy include:
- Lack of extensive sex education in our community.
Most of our communities do not bother to offer proper sex education to the girls, therefore, our girls grow up without any knowledge on the dangers of teenage pregnancy in their lives and how it might stop them from achieving their dreams.
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High rate of poverty.
In our communities, especially rural areas, where many families struggle to get basic needs. This has driven many young teenagers to engage in sexual activities as a way of attaining some of the items they may need that cannot be provided by their parents, thereby leading to teenage pregnancy. -
Forced marriages.
Some parents marry off their young girls forcefully to men in exchange of dowry. This act leaves our teenage girls with no choice but to go with the man to whom she has been married to, hence leading to teenage pregnancy. -
Peer pressure.
Peer pressure is also another factor that has greatly contributed to teenage pregnancy amongst our girls in several communities. Most of our teenagers are influenced by their peers who already practice sex, and in fear of being left out of the group, they also engage in sexual activities as a way of fitting into the group, hence leading to teenage pregnancy.
The problem of teenage girls getting pregnant has adversely affected them and communities at large. Below are some of the effects of teenage pregnancy.
- School drop out.
Most girls, after getting pregnant, cannot continue with their studies because the school setting in Uganda, especially primary and secondary school levels, do not allow pregnant learners to continue school until they are done with their pregnancy. It is first after that they can come back to school. Also, other girls feel ashamed of coming back to school with fear of how their peers would look at them. Hence, they would rather not come back to school at all again and therefore drop out of school altogether. -
Loss of personal goals amongst girls.
Just like any other person, our teenage girls may have dreams and goals while growing up that they intend to achieve in their lives as they study. But all of these may be interrupted when they get pregnant early. This is because they may lose focus on their goals and instead take care of their pregnancy. Sometimes, even after the delivery of the baby, they do not bother to revisit their goals. -
Pregnancy complications.
These teenagers are most likely to suffer from pregnancy complications, even difficulty when giving birth, because they are not mature enough to produce like other normal adults. This may also lead to giving birth to underweight and premature babies.
Conclusively, there is need for collective efforts from the government, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders, as well as parents and schools, to support and educate our teenagers about the dangers associated with early pregnancies and how they can prevent it. Teenage pregnancies have interrupted and wasted the lives of so many of your girls in our comminutes.
It is not until our government ensures proper knowledge and enough education through health organizations that teenagers get information and above all learn to make the right decision upon this issue of teenage pregnancy before it truly gets out of hand.