TEENAGE PREGNANCIES - INTERVENTION MUST BE SCHOOL BY SCHOOL

The high number of reported teenage pregnancies in Gauteng requires targeted intervention at schools where this is identified as a problem. School principles should report pregnancies every month so that the problem can be picked up early.

A large number of pregnancies at a school is a symptom of a broader problem, both in the school itself and in the surrounding community. You find that teenage pregnancies tend to cluster in certain areas.

It may be well be that forced sex is rife in these areas, and this needs to be curbed, particularly if teachers are involved.

It also shows where HIV/Aids prevention efforts are ineffective as unprotected sex results in pregnancy.

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has correctly identified that birth control has been neglected, and we need to speedily correct this.

According to Stats SA, 5000 teenage girls fell pregnant in Gauteng in 2009.

It is reported that between December 2010 and February this year, 317 girls under the age of 18 gave birth at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.

At Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, 63 babies were born to mothers under 18 years old between January and March this year.

Children having children is a double tragedy, as it interrupts the schooling of the mother and the child is likely to grow up in disadvantaged circumstances.

The fathers need to be held to account as well, which would send an effective message.

Intervention teams need to be set up at the problem schools so that the teenage pregnancy crisis is curbed.

Statement issued by Jack Bloom MPL, DA Gauteng Health Spokesman, April 18 2011

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