Why are so many Gauteng teenagers falling pregnant?

On Tuesday, the Gauteng health department revealed in a written reply to the Democratic Alliance (DA) that more than 23,000 teenage pregnancies had been reported in the province between April 2020 and March 2021.

An alarming 934 babies were delivered by girls aged between 10 and 14 and nearly 3,000 girls between the ages of 10 and 19 chose to terminate their pregnancies. These figures are said to reflect a devastating reality for many children in South Africa.

What drives teenage pregnancies?

The Gauteng shadow MEC for social development, Refiloe Nt’sekhe recently commented on the statistics on teenage pregnancies, saying that children were having sex, but their fear of being ridiculed by adults prevented them from asking for contraception.  

A study published under Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health in 2006 found that teens wanted their relationships to bring them intimacy, social status and sexual pleasure and that they had a strong expectation that sex would fulfil these goals.

According to a research study published by the Health Systems Trust in 2013, “teenage pregnancy and being a teenage mother is not simply about teenagers having unprotected sex, it is wrapped up in gendered norms, sexual taboos (especially around teenage sex) and gender inequalities within our societies which influence how, when and why teenagers have sex”.

The study highlighted factors that placed teenage girls in South Africa at a higher risk to fall pregnant at an earlier age:

• Young girls dropping out of school early on due to economic barriers or poor scholastic performance
• Many girls growing up in poverty
• Limited opportunities to discuss sexuality
• Gaps in knowledge of and access to contraceptives
• Men making decisions about sex in situations where girls or young women are involved in relationships of unequal power (often resulting in unprotected and forced sex)
• Young women who are poor who often need to make trade-offs between health and economic security, often leading to abusive relationships, inter-generational relationships and multiple partners. This often also limits young women’s ability to negotiate when it comes to when and how to have sex.

PLAN International says that 90% of births by girls aged 15-19 in developing countries occur within early marriage, where there is often an imbalance of power, no access to contraception and pressure on girls to prove their fertility.

Has Covid-19 had an effect?

According to a virtual roundtable discussion hosted by MenEngage Africa on 10 February this year, teenage pregnancies increased during the lockdown period. According to a report by Unesco, around one million girls across sub-Saharan Africa who fell pregnant in this time, were not able to return to school.

ALSO READ: More than 20 000 teenage pregnancies reported in Gauteng since April 2020

Could developmental changes have an effect?

Teenagers are naturally inquisitive, risk more and seek new experiences. They are often influenced by friends when it comes to sense of self and self-esteem. Being in the developmental phase, teenagers still need guidance as they engage in more risky behaviours and are still developing control over their impulses.

According to karger.com the most important psychological and psychosocial changes in puberty and early adolescence include:

• The emergence of abstract thinking
• The growing ability of absorbing the perspectives of viewpoints of others
• An increased ability of introspection
• The development of personal and sexual identity
• The establishment of a system of values
• Increasing autonomy from family and more personal independence
• Greater importance of peer relationships of sometimes subcultural quality
• The emergence of skills and coping strategies to overcome problems and crises

Adolescents’ brains are still learning to control and express emotions, which could make navigating conversations and relationships a little harder. While they are developing various life skills, they may still misread facial expressions and body language – something that could also influence communication about sex among other things.

These youngsters are also said to go through an “invincible” phase, which has them thinking and acting as if nothing bad could happen to them. They are ultimately still learning about the consequences of their actions.

Consequences of teenage pregnancy

Teenage pregnancies could have numerous repercussions, including family feuds, broken relationships, pregnancy- and childbirth-related complications and even maternal and child mortality. Many of these consequences are mainly due to the girls’ bodies being immature and therefore babies born to teenage mothers are inevitably also at greater risk.

In a journal that was published on BMC, focus group discussions revealed that teen pregnancies were often unplanned.

“No, I did not plan to fall pregnant. In fact, everything happened so fast. It was my first sexual experience. I became ill and my mother took me to a private doctor. At the doctor’s room, I was tested for pregnancy. The test was positive,” said one participant.

Another teen mother said that rebelling against her family lead to her unplanned pregnancy.

“My family chased me away from home due to misbehaviour, I decided to stay at my friend’s house. At my friend’s house, I had my own freedom, and no one could control me. I did as I pleased, and I got pregnant.”

What about boys and men?

Teen pregnancies are often also imposed with young women being dominated by men and conflict, as well as cultural and social expectations.

One participant contributing to the study’s group discussions said that her boyfriend’s friends had been teasing him about not having children. He believed that having a child would prove his manhood and wanted her to fall pregnant and give him a child.

Research shows that the men or boys impregnating teenage girls often feel that their primary role is to provide economically and not so much to undertake caring for the child.

Even the South African Schools Act seems to be for the girl only when it comes to teenage pregnancies, which reflects gendered prejudices that the responsibility for falling pregnant and being a teenage parent lies with the girl and that parenting should be conducted almost exclusively by the mother.

Apart from the urgent action needed with regards to domestic violence and gender-based violence, there is clearly also a gap in the country’s sexual education system for both girls and boys.