The Lower Manya Krobo Municipality in the Eastern region recorded a total of 551 cases of teenage pregnancies involving girls between the ages of 10 to 19 years in 2017 as compared to 584 in 2016.
Senior Midwifery Officer at the Lower Manya Krobo Health Directorate, Madam Evelyn Doku disclosed this during the ‘Queens valentine Bite.’
The Queen’s Valentine Bite was organized by the Paramount Queen of the Lower Manya Traditional area, Nana Aplam II which aimed at bringing girls of school going age from Primary school to Senior High School to educate them on the effects of pre-marital sex to mark the valentine day celebration.
The programme which came off at the premises of the Akro Senior High School attracted scores of school girls, traditional rulers, parents, the Municipal Chief Executive of the Lower Manya Krobo municipal assembly, Hon Simon Tetteh and other dignitaries.
According to Madam Doku, cases of teenage pregnancy in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality though on a steady decline over the last three years still remained a matter of concern.
“Though there is decrease year after year, the rate of the teenage pregnancies is alarming and might have negative impact on society,” she said.
Providing statistics to back to her position, the Senior Midwifery Officer disclosed that 613 cases of teenage pregnancy were recorded in 2015 as against 584 in 2016 and 551 in 2017.
This, she added brings the total number of cases within the last three years to 1,748, a situation she described as alarming and called for the need for the Directorate, the municipal Assembly and traditional leaders to create awareness for parents and their wards to help reduce the menace.
“This situation is very alarming and needs urgent attention from the assembly, traditional rulers, parents and teachers to curb this devastating issue at hand,” she stressed.
She blamed the several incidents of teen pregnancies on the nonchalance and disregard for the dangers associated with the phenomenon on the part of teenage girls especially and charged them to be rather studious.
“Girls of school going age nowadays see boy/girl relationships as a fashion which is leading them into getting pregnant on a daily basis,” she lamented. “Our girls must desist from sexual relationships and rather take their learning very seriously.”
The Senior Midwifery Officer also blamed the increase in teenage pregnancy cases in the municipality on many factors such as; lack of proper parental care, too many drinking spots and night clubs, peer group influence among others.
She cautioned that, this acts if not checked could hinder development of the municipality and the country at large.
“There is a need for parents to take good care of their wards by providing them their basic needs to help them improve their academic performance to avoid the influence of boys taking advantage of them,” she said.
Research has proven that Fifty Seven thousand (57,000) teenage pregnancies were recorded nationwide in the first half of 2017.
A total of 31 teenage pregnancy related deaths were also recorded during the same period.
BY Austin Ofori Addo/ritefmonline.org/austinofori.addo@gmail.com
