News / National
Zimbabwe struggles with teen pregnancies
08 Jul 2017 at 03:28hrs | Views
TEENAGE pregnancies, which are a major contributor to maternal and child mortality, remain high at 22 percent in the country at a time Government has set a target to reduce them to 12 percent by 2020.
Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council assistant director for evaluation and research, Mr Lovejoy Gamba, said Government is concerned with the high percentage of teenage pregnancies.
Speaking during a media sensitisation workshop, Mr Gamba said about a quarter of maternal deaths are caused by teenage pregnancies.
"During our time, teenage pregnancies were not even an issue but by 1994 we started crafting programmes to address the scourge. However, teenagers are not responding to any of the programmes hence the reason why we only managed to reduce teenage fertility by 2 percent from 24 against a target of reaching 12 percent by 2020," said Mr Gamba.
He said the Ministry of Health and Child Care would present its findings and review of the targets next year before a global family planning summit audience.
"We may have to revise our targets as we only have about three years to reach the 2020 target of reducing teenage fertility rate to 12 percent. We are, however, working on improving programming for youth centres which requires huge investments," said Mr Gamba.
Reasons for the high teenage pregnancies include among others child marriages, some beliefs in apostolic sects as well as unmet needs of family planning in adolescents.
The unmet need is the percentage of sexually active teenagers who wish to limit or postpone child bearing but are not currently using contraceptives.
"Our efforts are like a drop in the ocean and much needs to be done especially for teenagers in rural areas," said Mr Gamba.
By preventing unintended pregnancies, family planning helps women avoid health risks.
According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF), family planning averts approximately 310 000 unintended pregnancies in Zimbabwe each year.
By investing in family planning now, the country can increase this number to almost 500 000 per year by 2020.
The UNPF also says Zimbabwe's contraceptive prevalence rate is one of the highest in Africa at 59 percent.
Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council assistant director for evaluation and research, Mr Lovejoy Gamba, said Government is concerned with the high percentage of teenage pregnancies.
Speaking during a media sensitisation workshop, Mr Gamba said about a quarter of maternal deaths are caused by teenage pregnancies.
"During our time, teenage pregnancies were not even an issue but by 1994 we started crafting programmes to address the scourge. However, teenagers are not responding to any of the programmes hence the reason why we only managed to reduce teenage fertility by 2 percent from 24 against a target of reaching 12 percent by 2020," said Mr Gamba.
He said the Ministry of Health and Child Care would present its findings and review of the targets next year before a global family planning summit audience.
"We may have to revise our targets as we only have about three years to reach the 2020 target of reducing teenage fertility rate to 12 percent. We are, however, working on improving programming for youth centres which requires huge investments," said Mr Gamba.
The unmet need is the percentage of sexually active teenagers who wish to limit or postpone child bearing but are not currently using contraceptives.
"Our efforts are like a drop in the ocean and much needs to be done especially for teenagers in rural areas," said Mr Gamba.
By preventing unintended pregnancies, family planning helps women avoid health risks.
According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF), family planning averts approximately 310 000 unintended pregnancies in Zimbabwe each year.
By investing in family planning now, the country can increase this number to almost 500 000 per year by 2020.
The UNPF also says Zimbabwe's contraceptive prevalence rate is one of the highest in Africa at 59 percent.
Source - chronicle
