Health experts have expressed worry about what they describe as a high rate of teenage pregnancies in the Talensi District.
At least 110 teenage girls aged between ten and fourteen years got pregnant between January and March, 2020. The figure increased to 146 between April and May in cases involving girls aged between fifteen and nineteen years.
Some 128 girls whose ages are between fifteen and nineteen years got pregnant. The Officer in charge of Adolescent Health at the Talensi District Hospital, Mrs. Sedonia Abapori Adabugah, says 384 teenage pregnancies have been recorded so far with 197 deliveries in the district. She added that the figures were likely to shoot up by close of December, 2020.
She spoke to Word News exclusively at a programme organised by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in collaboration with the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council (UERCC) and the gender desk of the assemblies in the region.
The district, according to her, recorded 114 teenage pregnancies within a quarter in 2018 with ages between 15-19 years and 186 within a quarter in 2019 with 105 deliveries involving girls aged between fifteen and nineteen years.
“On the adolescent sexual behaviour, we have finished collecting the data we are entering but if you look at some of the responses we are getting when we ask, ‘where did you first have sex?’ It is either funeral grounds, the market, music album launching and passing-out ceremonies. So, we need to do something as parents to help our younger ones. We need to talk to them and encourage them to get them proper guidance and counseling,” she said.
She, however, charged parents to wake up to the situation and take quick steps to address it in their various communities “because the younger ones are our future generation”.
Speaking at the event, the Girl-Child Education Officer at the Talensi District Education Directorate, Mollydean Zong Buntuya, said: “In terms of teenage pregnancy issues in Talensi, in fact, the story it’s not good, because our pregnancy cases keep increasing. Even if there is a particular year there is a slight reduction, but another time you will see that it has increased so much, especially this year, because of COVID-19, we have recorded a lot of pregnancies issues, over 70 pregnancies. What makes this year different from the previous years is that normally you have pregnancies cases moving with marriage issues.
In a year where you have more pregnancies, then marriage issues will also increase and marriage issues have never been up to pregnancies issues because most girls in the previous years married because they were pregnant.”
She also noted that because of COVID-19, the district had also recorded high numbers of marriage and teenage pregnancy cases within the age bracket of 14 and 21 years, placing the district first on the list and about 80 male and female students got married owing to COVID-19 and mining activities in the district.
Mrs. Mollydean also entreated the district assembly to enact bylaws to control the time people spent outside on passing out and launching of music albums in the district.
The Chief of Tindongo, Naab Robert Mogre, said the fight against teenage pregnancy had worsened with the present of illegal mining operations in the district.
However, Mr Maxwell Tengozor, the Talensi District Gender Desk Officer, said there was an incident where a young girl got pregnant just because of two Ghana cedis a young boy offered to a girl and asked the girl to pay back and in paying back the girl got pregnant with just one round of sexual intercourse.
Gaspard Ayuureneeya.