A spike in teen births noticed in Limpopo on New Year’s Day
In the hopes of crippling teenage pregnancy altogether, Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba encourages better education in the subject in all schools.
LIMPOPO – Much to all babies termed blessings upon birth, an impression by the Department of Health to tighten education around the effects of sexual interaction among teenagers is noticeable, following an increase of births by teenagers in the province on January 1 compared to the same numbers last year.
Although just four teenagers gave birth in the Capricorn District, including a 14-year-old in Mankweng in the start of the new year, a statistical report released by the department to the public on the early morning of January 2, shows that there has been an increase of four, from 24 of teenage births compared to 2022, bringing the figure to 28 teen mothers giving birth.
The MEC, Dr Phophi Ramathuba says their track-record found that such as statutory rape victims lack support systems and functioning family structures, making them susceptible to sexual predators who mask as emotional comforters for a short while.
Ramathuba said they want to assist young mothers to salvage them back to school and emotional stability while raising their young ones, through counselling, thorough assistance of health professionals, the departments of Social Development, Sport, Arts and Culture and Education in a relentless effort of eventually reaching consistent zero cases of teenage births.
“A baby is difficult to raise for an adult. What more to a minor whose brain is yet to fully develop, without proper finances and family support? When social workers do household profiling, they find that these 14-and-15-year-old mothers are sometimes orphans and who will support that orphan? So in the hopes of crippling teenage pregnancy altogether, we want to bring more of those who have overcome similar situations to motivate them to work hard for their sake and of that of their offspring,” she says.
She said the adoption of such programmes yielded great results in schools outside of the district, and she hoped to establish these across all affected schools.
“We did that in Mukhwantheli Secondary School. They had 38 pregnancies and when I called to check on December 25, to check what happened in 2022, they recorded zero births since our intervention. This was a joint effort with the district municipalities in 2018,” she added.
