Becoming a
\nparent, one of the most important events in a person’s life, should be – and
\nmost of the time is – a moment of true joy. It’s also a decision that brings
\nalong changes for which parents must be prepared. This is not the case,
\nhowever, with teenage mothers in Romania, which has one of the highest figures
\nin this respect. According to EUROSTAT, in 2016, 14% of first-time moms were
\nunder the age of 20. In 2015, also according to EU statistics, more than 350 of
\nthe women who gave birth that year were aged 10 to 14, and another 12,800 were
\naged 15 to 19. Behind these figures there are real lives, which are denied a natural
\ncourse of development and are often subject to public condemnation. Such cases
\nof children with children have impressed the Romanian director Ozana Nicolau,
\nwho wrote and directed a play titled Foreplay, based on her own
\nrecollections. Here is Ozana Nicolau:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The core of
\nthis show is extremely personal. It’s actually about my childhood, in the
\n1990s, somewhere on the outskirts of Bucharest, where I met a lot of teenage moms.
\nI had school colleagues and neighbours in that situation. The story was most of
\nthe time the same: the girl would get pregnant, would not dare tell her
\nparents, so only some colleagues and friends knew about it. And I’m speaking of
\n6th to 8th graders, in 1996-1998. At some point, when the
\npregnancy became visible, they would disappear from school or from the
\nplayground. I can only assume that the solution was for them to be sent to the
\ncountryside or to a smaller town. But it was a huge disgrace, it was
\nunacceptable for a girl aged 13 or 14 to be pregnant and stay in school. It was
\ninadmissible.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Besides school
\ndrop-out, which blocks women’s access to decent jobs, teenage mothers are also
\nsubject to social stigma. For her play, Ozana Nicolau talked to more than 30
\ngirls that had got pregnant. Some of them told her that their peers believed
\nthey made a mistake. And this is how some of these mothers get to see their own
\nchild as a mistake. Ozana Nicolae:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
To them, the
\njoy of becoming a mom turns into a burden. Being a parent is in any
\ncircumstance a difficult experience, full of challenges. So when this happens
\nat the age of 14 or 15, when you are not really defined as a person, you cannot
\nbe responsible for yourself, let alone for another human being. So, an inner
\nconflict emerges, and adding to that is people around you, pointing the finger
\nat you for making such a big mistake.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Another thing
\nthat the artists working on the Foreplay project found out was that the
\nteenage mom phenomenon cannot be strictly linked to a precarious economic
\nsituation, because such cases are reported among all social categories. Here is
\nOzana Nicolau again:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
This is rather
\nrelated to our past. Romania still carries the burden of sexual taboos, it is
\nstill very difficult for us to talk about such matters. Sexual education is
\nscarce in schools, as it is at home. That is the real problem.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Still, as of
\n2004, the public education system has introduced an optional course titled
\nEducation for Health. The program is available to children from the 1st
\nto the 12th grade, and the subject matter is taught in schools by
\nbiology teachers or educators, following a special training. One of the organisations
\nthat have provided this type of training is the NGO Youth for Youth. The
\ncourse starts with an introduction into hygiene and environmental protection,
\nand then focuses on reproductive health and family. All these concepts are
\ntaught in keeping with the children’s age, as Adina Manea, the director of the
\nfoundation Youth for Youth told us. In the 2014-2015 school year, 6% of the
\ntotal number of school children benefited from the courses provided under the
\nEducation for Health programme. Adina
\nManea told us how many schools in Romania chose to teach that optional course:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Data provided
\nby the Ministry of Education show that, in the 2017-2018 school year, some 3,500
\nschools registered for that optional. This accounts for 6-7% of the total
\nnumber of pupils in the pre-university system. It’s a lot for an optional course,
\nbut not enough if we think of the Romanian students’ needs, irrespective of
\ntheir age. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Civil society
\nmilitates for a broader access of the population to this type of education, but
\nnot necessarily through school because part of the young women who become
\nmothers are no longer enrolled in the national education system. Other factor
\nare at play in this case, such as the early school dropout rate, which is quite
\nhigh in Romania. However, universal access to reproductive health is necessary,
\naccording to Adina Manea: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
We are talking
\nabout 10% of the total female population. This is quite a lot, because teenage
\npregnancy entails other health risks for both mothers and new-borns. During a
\nschool year, full term pregnancy is only reported for 2 girls per school on
\naverage. What is clear is that school helps them complete their education if
\nthey want to. Teenage pregnancy is no longer a stigma, but at the same time the
\ntopic is never discussed. As far as the school colleagues and friends are
\nconcerned, things are different from one case to another. In the cases that our
\nassociation is familiar with, the babies were kept and raised by the family.
\nGiven that we work mostly in high schools, we are talking about teenagers who
\nhave the financial means to reach this level of education and who benefit from
\nthe support of their families.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Family support
\nis extremely important, director Ozana Nicolau agrees:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
If they are
\nlucky enough to be in a family whose members are emotionally balanced, who
\nunderstand what the girl is going through and who give her emotional support,
\nthen things get settled in about 2 years. I knew a girl in Vaslui, a mother in
\nher turn, who finished high school, passed the baccalaureate exam with a very
\ngood grade, went on to university and is getting a scholarship. So anything is
\npossible, if the family supports the girl and if her partner is also close to
\nher.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Foreplay has been warmly received by the public.
\nParents who had come alone to see the performance later talked about it to
\nother parents or brought their teenage children to see it. The play will also
\nbe performed in high schools in Bucharest and in schools near big cities.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romania has one of the highest proportions of teenage mothers in the European Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":142848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42997],"tags":[19347,43705],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-142847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-today","tag-romania","tag-teenage-moms"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n