TEENAGE PREGNANCY IN JAMAICA

TEENAGE PREGNANCY IN JAMAICA

            Approximately 20% of the women in Jamaica undergone pregnancy experience at least once before attaining the age of twenty years. The socio-cultural, political and economic environments in Jamaica have played a major role to influence the phenomenon and thus pointed out as the basic causes of teenage pregnancy in Jamaica (Rawlins, 2012).

Jamaica unfortunately has undergone periods of marginal economic growth and negative growth currently. This has made the country funds to be channeled toward dealing with the enormous deficit in the country budget and deprived support towards the essential social programs like assistance to the young women to educate them on sexuality and contraception. There have been startling lacks of easily available contraceptives and services which are youth friendly (Rawlins, 2012).

According to expert researches, one of the major causes of teenage pregnancy in Jamaica is the high level of ignorance by the youths regarding proper sexual practices and the consequences. 47 percent of males between the ages 15-19 do not use condom always with their regular female partners, and 40 percent do not use condoms even with non-regular partners. These boys say that they don’t like condoms as the reason behind not using them. On the other hand, 60% of the females don’t use condoms with their regular partners and 45% do not always use condoms with their other partners. Females claim that they don’t use condoms because they know their partners well. A big number of these teenage boys don’t know how to male condoms while the girls are not even aware that female condoms do exist (Rawlins, 2012).

Social traditions have also contributed to the causes of teenage pregnancy in Jamaica. Women in Jamaica perceive motherhood as assertion of identity and status and a way of eliminating infertility suspicion. However, a young woman will always receive mixed messages concerning pregnancy, the strong backgrounds of Christianity in Jamaica perceives sexual behavior by young girls a taboo. These Christian beliefs have made Jamaica society adopt “abstinence only” as the sole approach towards teen sexuality and neglected further communications with the adolescents regarding contraception, sexual intercourse, puberty and the maturation process (Rawlins, 2012).

Out of this taboo, yet another cause arises of early pregnancies in Jamaica, youths are hesitant in purchasing condoms on their own in their own communities. Small girls therefore end up engaging in sexual activities without using protection and without even considering the consequences thereafter (Rawlins, 2012).

Just as it is the case with any other developing country, in Jamaica, there are quite a number of myths surrounding pregnancy and sexual activities. These are further causes of teenage pregnancies in Jamaica. Girls have paid attention to these myths instead of seeking medical facts and as a result they find themselves messed up. For instance, studies have indicated that many girls in Jamaica usually have the notion that douching with Pepsi immediately after sex or having intercourse in the sea will stop pregnancy. The persistence of such like myths in many societies in Jamaica are yet another clear indications of ignorance out of which young girls have found themselves when it comes to dealing with their sexuality (Eggleston, Jackson, Rountree & Pan, 2014).

There are other cultural and social sources of this problem. The Jamaican Program for Adolescent Mothers, which aims at enabling teenage girls move on with their education during the pregnancy period and return to the regular school system after giving birth and also educating women on family planning; has attempted to provide amelioration on this problem. The first discussion armored the commonly heard belief that social customs in Jamaica depress discussions on matters of sexuality between parents and their children especially parents and daughters (Eggleston, Jackson, Rountree & Pan, 2014).

This lack of communiqué between parents and their children on sexuality matters is overwhelming and propagates a lack of knowledge and power. In the research a young adult who was interviewed had the following to say on how little she knew on sexual matters and pregnancy as a teenager. “I had sex, and I did not know where his thing was to go. [That] show how foolish I was at 13! Even when I was pregnant, I did not think I was pregnant, even though I did not see my     period. … I remember my aunt saying, ‘Why, you look like you pregnant,’ and I said, ‘I don’t know.’ She asked me, ‘Anybody trouble you?’ and I say, ‘Nobody trouble me.’ I didn’t realize what she meant by ‘trouble you!’” (Eggleston, Jackson, Rountree & Pan, 2014).

Some others interviews had clearly indicated that the participants don’t know the use of contraceptives. Because sex is not planned or concerns on the side effects, This again due to the lack of awareness and general knowledge about the importance of contraception, an issue which even to adult women contributes to this issue (Eggleston, Jackson, Rountree & Pan, 2014).

Inequality in perverted relationships with adolescent boys is another crucial source of this problem. Women refer to biological fathers as “baby fathers” simply because they are not supportive during the pregnancy periods and don’t share responsibilities on the process of upbringing the inborn. Many of these affected girls don’t remain with their first “baby fathers” as one victim reported “I have two other children, and they are not for the first baby-father, and I think most of us are in that position. We have two children, and him love to control me and don’t want me to work…. Most men want women that are weak.” (Eggleston, Jackson, Rountree & Pan, 2014).

In the year 2008, teenage pregnancy in Jamaica was fourth highest in the whole of Caribbean with 72 births for every 1000 adolescent girls, a very great cause for concern. Since then, state agencies, Ministry of Education, National Family Planning Board and other non-governmental organizations have promoted strong awareness and interventions on reproduction and sexual health, abstinence and responsible sexual behavior. The initiatives have considerably lowered the teenage pregnancy rates. In the year 2015, the rates dropped to 59 per 1000 adolescent girls between the ages 15-19 (Eggleston, Jackson, Rountree & Pan, 2014).

            Prior to the year 2013, pregnant girls were permanently excluded from the formal school program. Although Government policy allowed for re-admission of pregnant girls, many school administrators were reluctant to re-admit and highly discriminated against pregnant school girls.in 2013, the government passed a national policy that mandated re-admission of school aged mothers after giving birth in the same school they were before becoming pregnant or any other school of the same level. This has helped reduce the number of illiterate young mothers who were rampant before (Eggleston, Jackson, Rountree & Pan, 2014).

            The Women Center of Jamaica Foundation, a government agency, assists young-mothers through the pre-integration phase of mentorship, education and counselling development. After this short intervention, teenage girls reintegrate, founded on their age, into secondary schools or post-secondary level institutions (Eggleston, Jackson, Rountree & Pan, 2014).

            The policy is still on its initial stages of implementation and although there have been formal evaluation, early responses show that more teenage mothers are able to access and complete their secondary education level and cultivating their life outcomes (Eggleston, Jackson, Rountree & Pan, 2014).

 References

Rawlins, J. M. (2012). Parent-daughter interaction and teenage pregnancy in Jamaica. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 131-138.

Eggleston, E., Jackson, J., Rountree, W., & Pan, Z. (2014). Evaluation of a sexuality education program for young adolescents in Jamaica. Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública, 7(2), 102-112.