
On June 27, 2005 Africa had her youngest mother; Gladys Chelagat, a young Kenyan lady, who became the youngest mother in Africa at that time to give birth at age 10.
Everyone was shocked with some saying its a lie.
Now, that was 13years ago and the number of kids under 13 years old who are becoming mothers have risen since then.
These kids are Most of the times victims of rape and in some cases, they are just caught up in adventure as they try to explore their bodies as it developes. These are all as a result of lack of Sex Education in our homes and schools which leads to poor emotional management and poor among teenagers and even adults as some of the kids are abused by their parents.
“World wide about 16million teenage girls give birth every year” says the U.N Population Fund. And most of these teenagers are from Africa and Asia.. .
Studies show that, in many African countries, by the age of 18, about 20-40% of teenage girls are married and when they get pregnant at their early ages, their body relative to their sizes may not be ready for the changes that comes with pregnancies thus they are vulnerable to infections or Abstetric Fistula; which is a hole between the rectum and the vagina caused by prolonged obstructed labour.
With the stigma attached to teen pregnancies, teenagers turn to start taking hard drugs and going to unqualified practitioners to carry out the abortion processes in fear of what their parents would do them and what friends would say when they find out about it. These processes end the lifes of many teens and in some cases render them infertile due to the destruction of the womb.
Being a continent with high rate of teen pregnancies, only a few African countries have legalised abortion like South Africa and Tunisia. In other countries abortion is undertaken when the life of the mother is in danger.
As it stands, African remains the continent with the highest teen pregnancies and in a bit to check teen pregnancies, the government could integrate Sex education into the school curicolum and the parents inclusive should talk to their kids about sex(abstinence and safe sex).
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