‘Multisectoral effort needed to address teenage pregnancy’

MANILA, Philippines - A multisectoral effort must be waged to address the worsening problem of teenage pregnancy, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said last week.

Soliman made the call at the end of the Child and Adolescent Pregnancy Policy Forum on Friday where a study showed that repeat teenage pregnancy was on the rise.

Spearheaded by the Council on the Welfare of Children (CWC), the forum held at the Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria in Ortigas was part of this year’s celebration of Girl-Child Week. It was attended by representatives from the Department of Social Welfare and Development, National Anti-Poverty Commission and child welfare advocate groups.

During the forum, Lilibeth Castro, a member of a team of University of the Philippines-Manila researchers that conducted the Trends in Adolescent Childbearing in the Philippines study for the CWC, said the increase in repeat teenage pregnancy indicates a worsening problem.

According to the study, the proportion of girls 15 to 19 year old who have started childbearing is increasing. Childbearing is usually among girls aged 18 to 19 and 2011 data show that one in four or 23.6 percent of 19-year-old girls is pregnant or already a mother.

“About 15 percent of babies born to adolescent mothers are results of a repeat pregnancy...the birth intervals of adolescent mothers at 19 months is much shorter compared to 27 months among older mothers,” the CWC said, citing the study.

“The unmet need for contraception among women 15 to 24 years is 37 percent, compared to 24 percent among those women 25 years and older,” the CWC added.

Castro and fellow researcher Mary Ann Ladia also said that the number of births to adolescent girls increased by 65 percent, from 126,025 births in 2000 to 207,898 in 2010. During the same period, the number of births to girls younger than 15 years of age doubled.

Births to adolescent girls reportedly accounted for 11.6 percent of total births in 2010, up from 7.13 percent in 2000.

The Kalusugan ng Mag-Ina Inc. (KMI), where Castro and Ladia are also members, noted that there are several determinants of early childbearing.

Among these are the changing social milieu brought on by the information technology revolution where relationships are forged online and interactions start through texting, and the lack of sex education.

It was also found that with the absence of sex information and education from parents or schools, teens turn to friends, partners and the media for information.

The KMI said that teenaged mothers cited peer pressure and alcohol as pre-disposing factors to early sexual encounters.

Child psychologist Maria Lourdes Carandang of the MLAC Psychological Services of Well-Being said the worsening adolescent pregnancy problem raised the need for parenting seminars in communities to improve the parenting skills of parents.

The KMI also recommended the development and institution of curriculum-based comprehensive sexual education (CSE) to address the need for appropriate sex education among children.

“CSE should be linked to accessible adolescent-friendly health services,” KMI said.