<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Dire poverty, lack of education, lack of interest,
\nnobody to explain them how their own body works. These are the dismal
\ningredients of a failed life experience. Today we focus on very young
\npregnancies, reported for girls younger than 15, we’re speaking about systemic
\nflaws and about what can be done to mitigate such a scourge. Romania is at the
\ntop of a European Union chart focusing on teenage mothers. Gabriela Alexandrescu is the Executive President of Save
\nthe Children.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gabriela Alexandrescu: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I
\nwon’t be mincing my words and I shall tell you that a quarter of the European
\nUnion’s teenage mothers are from Romania. We all know that 23% of those young mothers who have not yet turned 19 are reported for our country. We are at
\nthe top of the table across the European Union regarding the number of mothers
\nunder 15 and 2nd-placed, after Bulgaria, according to the number of mothers
\nunder 19. In Romania, nearly 10% of
\nthe births are reported for teenage mothers. Quite a few of them come from
\nlocalities with no family doctor for the community whatsoever, or where family
\ndoctors are in short supply. These girls resort to self-medication during pregnancy,
\nthey don’t see a medical doctor to get their name registered and their
\npregnancy monitored and just wait until things are rushing forward or their
\ncondition gets worse. Save the Children has been actively involved in the field
\nof children healthcare from across Romania, we contribute to the provision of
\nthe right to live taking action along five directions. One has to do with
\nsupplying maternities, the paediatric and the new-born sections with state-of-the-art
\nmedical equipment, the second pertains to developing the specialised support
\nnetworks for mothers and children in the rural communities, the third such
\nintervention direction is the one by means of which we stage specialised
\ncourses of the teams of professionals (medical teams, mainly), through the
\nfourth intervention direction we develop education-for-healthcare programs and
\nresearch programs, debates with the authorities and specialists for the change
\nof social policies and the laws, when needed. So far, we have worked with more
\nthan 56,000 pregnant females (children under 15) and we saw the change. Each
\nyear we work in 46 communities with mixed teams of specialists, with trained
\nnurses, social assistants, psychologists who are familiar with the realities of
\nthose areas and address the specific reality of the young mothers and the
\nchildren.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Oana Motea is a UNICEF Health Specialist. She has
\ndrawn attention to the fact that the scourge of being pregnant when very young
\nis transmitted from one generation to the next, within the family.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Oana Motea:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The conclusions of the Unicef – Samas report, launched earlier this year, has
\nrevealed that pregnancies of mothers older than 15 could be prevented through
\neducation and family education programs tailored according to the
\nsocio-cultural milieu those adolescents and the fathers-to-be live in. The
\nphenomenon is cyclical, it tends to repeat itself in the same family, from one
\ngeneration to the next and goes with the poor economic, social and healthcare
\ncondition. There is no clear-cut identification of the role the authorities
\nplay, and of their corroborated responsibilities, as regards reproduction in
\nthe case of the younger generations and the prevention of pregnancies in the
\ncase of underage mothers. There is a need for integrated public policies
\ncapable of targeting education for healthcare, awareness-raising efforts at
\ncommunity level and tailoring the adaptation of the interventions to suit the
\nteenagers’ psychology and emotions.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mother-child or child-mother? It’s hard to tell.
\nUNICEF’s data on Romania are quite baffling, at that. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Oana Motea:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In 2019, more than 16,000 pregnancies were reported
\namong teenagers, down by 9% as against
\n2018. Notwithstanding, with
\nthe adolescents who are younger than 15, we noticed an 11% increase in the north-western
\nand north-eastern regions. These percentages reveal how serious the problem is,
\nat once calling for educational action to be taken, capable of targeting all
\ngroups of teenagers, using specific communication channels, with different
\nmessage presentation forms, tailored to suit their needs. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A solution to mitigate the phenomenon, which tends to
\nbecome a scourge? Doctors’ offices in the rural areas, targeted programs. There
\nis no other way. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Save the Children’s Gabriela Alexandrescu:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As of late
\nwe have even launched a survey among adolescent girls in vulnerable
\ncommunities, in partnership with the authorities in line, with the Romanian
\nSenate, it was a survey targeting teenage mothers in rural and underprivileged areas.
\nWe did carry the survey over July-August 2021, in 46 communities across
\nRomania and unfortunately, our survey has pointed to a worrying, chronic
\ndeficiency of the healthcare services for the teenage mother, also pointing to
\ndetrimental social aspects, relevant to that effect. We can say 16 years and
\nthree months is the average age when the first child is born, among teenage
\ngirls in the underprivileged rural areas. Those with more than one child are 18 and one month
\nold when the second child is born, on average, and are 19 years and five months
\nold when their third child is born. 40% of the mothers and the pregnant
\nteenagers in the rural areas have stated they have never taken the medical
\ntests recommended during pregnancy because they had no access to medical
\nservices or no financial resources to do that. 87% of them have never used and
\ndo not know any contraceptive method. 72% of the young women and girls have
\nresponded they lived in very modest conditions, in one, maybe two rooms,
\nsharing the premises with people from other families. 55% of them have stated the
\nmoney they got was not enough for the bare necessities, quite a few of them
\nrelied on their children’s allowance, while a great number of them responded
\nthe pandemic has negatively affected the adult’s chances to work for their
\nfamilies. There are mothers, who, not having turned 25 yet, have given birth to
\ntheir fifth child already. And here we have a problem, a worrying situation.
\nThat is why we, those with Save the Children, need to get actively involved to
\nalleviate the scourge in the underprivileged rural communities, deprived of
\nmaterial resources and information means. And we need to carry on with those
\ninformation, specific intervention programs, aimed at facilitating access to
\nsocio-medical services.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The good news is that the Save the Children
\nOrganisation has also expanded to Republic of Moldova. The successful programs
\nSave the Children implemented there proved reliable. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gabriela Alexandrescu:<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nsuccessful example we had in Romania, we’re also taking it to the Republic of
\nMoldova, as there, we work with the Healthcare for Children Association and
\nChildren’s Rights Information and Documentation Centre in Chisinau. So as of
\nthis year, we have that integrated, community program covering 16 counties in
\nRomania and 16 districts in Republic of Moldova. Our effort is essential, given
\nthat we’re all too familiar with the fact that teenage pregnancy is associated
\nwith higher pregnancy risks. High blood pressure, anaemia, premature birth,
\nunderweight new-borns, postpartum depression and suchlike, while on the other
\nhand, premature maternity exposes the young mothers to the risk of school
\ndropout, to the grim prospects of being engulfed by the vicious circle of
\npoverty, with a transgenerational aftermath. As part of the integrated
\ninterventions we had in the underprivileged rural areas, advised by the local
\nspecialists are the teenage girls, but also their families. It is important
\nthat we have an unmediated communication with the girls. <\/p>\n
(Translation by Eugen Nasta)<\/p>\n
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