19% teenage girls pregnant, 32% lack access to antenatal care ― Report

Published by

3 years ago

The 2018 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) has shown that 19% of teenage girls are mothers and pregnant with their first child as 32% do not attend antenatal care (ANC) while 66% delivered without supervision by skilled birth attendants.

The report also showed that young people have an HIV prevalence of 1.9 million which has high gender disparity among them and this is compounded with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Nigeria’s already fragile health system.

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire in his keynote address at the 2022 National and International Adolescent Health (IAHW) Week celebration press briefing in Abuja said, Federal Government remains resolute to ensure access to quality health to Nigerians, particularly the adolescent and young people.

Ehanire maintained that adolescents constitute significant proportions (22%) of the populations of Nigeria and the Progress towards achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and Universal Health Coverage requires keeping the adolescents healthy by appropriate investment and effective coordination.

Ehanire further recalled that during the commemoration of the IAHW in 2021, he informed stakeholders of the Government’s commitment towards ensuring the welfare of adolescents in Nigeria.

“I am glad to inform you that we have made modest progress, National Adolescent Health and development TWG has been repositioned and inaugurated for better performance with membership drawn from relevant stakeholders including Young People led Organisations”.

“In addition, we created a budget line at national levels for adolescent, developed a two-year National costed work plan and prioritised activities for implementation in 2022”.

“At the subnational levels, the National adolescent health policy is being domesticated, frontline health workers capacities are being built and strengthened in collaboration with our partners WHO, UNICEF, Lafiya project to mention but a few”.

“We are therefore advocating and making all efforts to strengthen effective coordination of adolescent health program nationwide”.

“I, therefore, urge all the partners to replicate the same structure in their respective states to ensure continuous delivery of essential gender-responsive services and to mitigate barriers faced by adolescents and young people in accessing services.

“To make progress on Universal Health Coverage, Nigeria recognises the need to keep adolescents at the centre of all programmes that are centred around their health and development in line with the vision that “no adolescent or young person is left behind”.

“To ensure ‘no adolescent or young person is left behind the Ministry will continue to collaborate with all partners and stakeholders at all levels to support specific actions that effectively respond to the needs of different categories of adolescents and young people who are at various levels of vulnerabilities”.

Similarly, the Minister of State for Health, Dr Olorunnimbe Mamora also gave alarming figure about teenage pregnancy as he said that approximately 12 million girls aged 15–19 years and at least 777,000 girls under 15 years give birth each year in developing regions of the world and at least 10 million unintended pregnancies occur each year among adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 years in the developing world.

Mamora further stated that complications during pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death for 15 to 19-year-old girls globally.

“Out of the estimated 5.6 million abortions that occur each year among adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 years, 3.9 million are unsafe, contributing to maternal mortality, morbidity and lasting health problems”.

According to Mamora, “Adolescent mothers (ages 10–19 years) face higher risks of eclampsia, puerperal endometritis, and systemic infections than women aged 20 to 24 years, and their babies face higher risks of low birth weight, preterm delivery and severe neonatal conditions.”

“You may now begin to understand the reason why paying adequate attention to the health and developmental issues of adolescents should take the centre stage and prioritisation.

“As we mark this national and international adolescent week, let us not forget to discuss deeply the need to provide adolescents with comprehensive, appropriate confidential and reliable quality services.

“There is also a huge need for policy implementation that uses adolescent self-reported data to help assess the quality of preventive care provided to youth,” he reiterated.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative, Dr Walter Kazadi Molumbo in his goodwill message pointed out that since its inception, International Adolescent Health Week has been telling the story of the silent cry of persons aged between 10 and 19 years; as he described them as a cohort people failed to listen to because world erroneously considered and treated them either as ‘older children’ or ‘younger adults’.

“It could be recalled that while commemorating the 2019 edition of IAHW with the theme, ‘Nothing About Them Without Them’, the world sought to advocate for inclusivity of adolescents in the design, planning, implementation and evaluation of programmes that target them”.

He however said the COVID-19 pandemic halted the plans for 2020 but in 2021, while still battling with the pandemic which had high mortality in adults, the theme of IAHW ‘Adolescent Resilience in the Face of a Pandemic’ attempted to re-focus attention on the need to not ignore the adolescents.

“Consequently, the pandemic also threatened to erode the gains we had made as well as jeopardize the future wellbeing of adolescents.”

“Now in 2022, as the world settles into a peri-COVID 19 era, the leading health issues of adolescents such as alcohol and tobacco use, unsafe sex, road injuries, poor diet, inadequate physical activity, diseases such as tuberculosis and mental disorders have not changed much, rather they have been exacerbated by the pandemic”.

IN CASE YOU MISSED THESE FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE