Analysis of Teenage Pregnancy and Child Marriage

The provided document is an assignment that delves into the critical issues of teenage pregnancy and child marriage in Africa. The analysis focuses on the consequences of these problems for girls' overall well-being and examines various initiatives aimed at reducing teenage pregnancy rates. The discussion covers a range of topics, including interventions with parents to promote sexual health, the effectiveness of long-acting reversible contraceptives, and the importance of nutrition for women and adolescent girls in Africa.

SYSTEMIC REVIEW OF
THE EFFECTIVENESS
OF INTERVENTIONS
FOR THE PREVENTION
OF TEENAGE
PREGNANCY IN SUB-
SHARAN AFRICA

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................4
METHODOLOGY..........................................................................................................................7
Search strategy........................................................................................................................7
Selection criteria.....................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Teenage pregnancy is a growing concern for females who are below 19 years. Teenage
pregnancy is also termed as adolescent pregnancy and it has become the issue because there are
several physical factor which impacts the health of teenage girl. According to human body
functioning and doctors it has been analysed that the body of girl who is below 19 is
underdeveloped and therefore it is important for the society to avoid early marriages (Wight and
Fullerton, 2013). Further, there are several risks which comes with adolescent pregnancy like,
premature labour, lack of iron, nutrients, blood loss, loss of weight etc.
Apparently, the highest teenage-pregnancy is seen is Sub-Sharan Africa and therefore
public sector has planned to establishing initiative which can assist in controlling child
marriages. The government of Sub-Sharan Africa is focused on reducing maternal mortality for
improving the care of pregnant adolescents and making teenage pregnancy safer (Winner and
et.al., 2012). Thus, it is important to ascertain effectiveness of intervention for preventing
adolescent pregnancy because it is life threatening to mother and her baby. Moreover, as per the
analysis it has been identified that baby of teenage mother generally die because of lack of iron,
blood, vitamins etc. (Nutrition of Women and Adolescent Girls: Why It Matters, 2013) Thus, the
African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the child, The African Youth Charter, The SADC
Protocol on Gender and Development and End Child Marriage in Africa are some programmes
and act which are intervention by African government to create awareness among people about
Girls education and increasing health problems due to lack of knowledge. These are the
government intervention which aims at protect the right of girl child against forceful marriage,
domestic violence etc.
AIM
“To ascertain effectiveness of Interventions for the Prevention of Teenage Pregnancy in Sub-
Sharan Africa”
OBJECTIVES
 To evaluate the effectiveness of Interventions for the Prevention of Teenage Pregnancy.
 To explore the impacts of Teenage Pregnancy in Sub-Sharan Africa.
 To assess the benefits of interventions for the Prevention of Teenage Pregnancy in Sub-
Sharan Africa.

Rational of research is to analyse the impact of teenage pregnancy which is the growing
concerns specially for the low income are like, Sub-Sharan Africa. This study will assist in
developing critical understanding over the teenage pregnancy and the effectiveness of
interventions. The motive behind conducting this is to identify the adequate information
regarding adolescent pregnancy which has become global phenomenon. This study will assist in
determining the factors which can be implemented to control and to improve care for pregnant
teenagers. Apart from this, this investigation will help the researcher in creating awareness
among people about the effectiveness of intervention to control teenage pregnancy because
according to biological process before 19 girl body is premature and is not strong enough to
carry baby. It is the topic of concern because it is leading to various life threatening disease of
teenage girls. In accordance to this research, the motive of scholar is to control risk of child
marriages which are leading to adolescent pregnancy.
LITERATURE REVIEW
According to Teen Pregnancy in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Application of Social
Disorganisation Theory, 2015, adolescent pregnancy is demographic problem because of
increasing child marriages. It is important for the society and parent of girl to understand the
impact of teenage pregnancy on the health of girl and her child. The author believes that it is the
most common practice and is conducted mostly in low income areas. As per Making pregnancy
safer, 2008, it has been identified the major cause of death in backward areas is teenage
pregnancy because there are millions of girls giving birth to premature child and also suffers
from lack of blood, iron and vitamins. According to Teen Pregnancy in Sub-Saharan Africa: The
Application of Social Disorganisation Theory (2015) teenage pregnancy is the result of the
negative decision that has been taken by the parents and guardians of the family of the girl. It is
because it is the responsibility of the parents to take proper care and support of the children.
They should understand the fact that when the girl is in teenage, her body and mind must not be
prepared completely for marriage and for pregnancy as well. Apparently as Sommer, 2011,
more than 2500 young people get infected with HIV and 89 percent of them are sub Saharan
African, therefore to prevent this the government has enacted various initiative to intervene
teenage pregnancy like community mobilization, female, empowerment and creating awareness
about the increasing health problems after adolescents pregnancy. The initiative by government
are the major factor due to which the society is now enabling changes in their standards of age of

marriage and getting pregnant. The author believes the creating awareness and providing
knowledge about the causes and effects of getting pregnant before age 20 is the most effective
step which assist in controlling pregnant adolescents. In contrast, Morobadi and Webber, 2014,
has stated that 95 percent of adolescents mother belongs to developing countries and maximum
of them are from sub Saharan African. The concept of teenage pregnancy in country came from
socio cultural pattern which are related to child marriage. The author stated that the girls are
forced to get married regardless of human rights. For the sake of child marriages the girls in
African region are focused to quit their education, learning. Further, these are girls who faces
domestic violence, sexual abuse, teenage pregnancy and many other health diseases. However,
to overcome the problems of child marriage which is leading to teenage pregnancy the most
promising initiative of government that is Ethiopia came to into existence which the motive of
ending early marriages. With the existence of AU initiative, the government aimed at
establishing change like, legislation, providing education, access of health care facilities, special
education to girls about reproductive health etc.
In contrast, Ending Child Marriage in Africa: Opening the Door for Girls' Education,
Health, and Freedom from Violence, 2015, has stated that AU initiative by African government
was successful because it came with the motive of establishing awareness among people that
females under 20 years age are girls and not bride. Moreover, creating awareness about the
health factors and establishing strict legal reforms is the practice which denotes effectiveness of
intervention for the Prevention of Teenage Pregnancy in Sub-Sharan Africa. According to views
of author it is most unethical practice which has become common challenge for the government.
As per analysis it has been determined that almost 40 percent of women in Sub Saharan African
are married as girls. Child marriage is closely related to child bearing and as per the biological
assistance it is determined that appropriate agree of getting married for girls is 20 to 24.
Therefore, if girls get married and pregnancy before 20 are physical immature and their birth
canal is also pre mature and underdeveloped. The major cause of teenage pregnancy is limited
access and awareness regarding reproductive information to girls. However, Africa: Strengthen
Steps to End Child Marriage, 2015, has stated that as per human rights almost every women in
Sub Saharan African area lack information regarding contraception and sexuality. Moreover, the
author stated that teenage girl who becomes mother before 20 takes time to recover. Therefore,

the government initiative and prevention measure plays major role in establishing effectiveness
in Sub Saharan African region.
Apparently, as per World Health Organization, 2017, that lack of education is the major
factor which is leading to adolescents pregnancy in African region. According to the analysis by
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), girls are forced to quit education and learning for
the sake of making family. According to families of girls will be educated than the individuals
will not respect their spouse and due to knowledge and education. According to many families of
African region after education girls becomes vulnerable due to which the individuals are unable
to manage with spouse and get divorced. As per, World Health Organization (2017) says that it is
not the problem with the parents but with the education that is being provided to them. It is
because often when a person is educated from the beginning, it is obvious enough that they are
literate enough to avoid such views of teenage marriage because teenage marriage is not a matter
of one or two days, but about the whole lifetime. Also, it involves all the phases as well such as
pregnancy etc., and these factors are quite hard to be managed by a teenage girl. Thus, Ending
Child marriage in Africa: A brief by girls not brides, 2017, has stated that Berhane Hewan
programme (2002-2008) was implemented by population council, in this the married and
unmarried girls of age group 10 to 19 are targeted in order to make them aware about the social
cultural norms which are focused one educating girls. It is the most effective intervention by
government to reduce the number of child marriages which leads to teenage pregnancy. Apart
from this, Senegal, Tostan’s Community Empowerment programme is implemented to empower
women and teenagers by providing them ways of education. The civil society of Africa came up
together to end up the concept of child marriage which states that Girls not brides. In this the
volunteers focus on making people Aware about the human right and impacts of exploitation.
Further, the system of this programme is focused on creating awareness among people regarding
earl marriages and its impacts. There are many government intervention which aims at protecting
girls and human right like, The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the child, The
African Youth Charter, The SADC Protocol on Gender and Development and The Protocol to
the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. In
addition, there are various effective intervention by government to raise awareness about
education in order to reduce child marriage which are leading to teenage pregnancy like, End
Child Marriage in Africa was first-ever Campaign of Africa.

As per Lewis and Skinner (2010) sometimes, it is the fault of the situation because when
some girl is orphan and does not have any guardian as well, so in that case, there occurs a sort of
pressure on the girl that how she is able to live and what will she eat and how she will survive, so
in such cases, the pressure on the girl let the girl into some situation like this. It is because a girl
can marry a person just because she also can have a family where she can be able to take care of
herself and will be able to survive. In contradiction to this Secur and Peipert, (2014), says that
there are some lifestyle habits also that leads to teenage pregnancy and issues such as there are
some kids who live in an atmosphere where people used to smoke, drink etc. so it must be having
some impact on their children as well. Some children get used to these habits by seeing such
atmosphere and the others who have not seen gets into this as a means of peer pressure. It is
when some children are sitting in a group and every one is drinking but one person is not, so it
creates a sort of peer pressure and the one left also gets into such habits. However, it can be
evaluated that teenage pregnancy ca actually have a very negative impact on the mental as well
as physical level of the girl, so it is very important to take some preventive measures so that it
can be prevented.
METHODOLOGY
Search strategy
The articles have been chosen using the search strategy in PubMed, CINAHL. There
were a variety of articles present on these platforms but a few were chosen that were relevant for
this topic, so they have been selected. The search keywords were “pregnancy”, “teenage”,
“rights”, “child marriage”. These were the keywords that were used at the time of investigating
about different articles on the topic.
Selection criteria
The articles have been selected on the basis of some criteria. It is being represented as
under :

Factor Inclusion Exclusion
Year  The year that has been
chosen for the research
are within the year
2010 to 2018 because it
can act relevant with
the requirement of the
research.
 So, the articles below
the range of 2010 have
been excluded because
in articles of year
before than 2010, there
is a possibility that the
articles might be
having the information
that cannot act relevant
enough with that of
today's world.
Language  English language has
been selected and
included because in
English, it is easier to
study and understand
the articles.
 Languages other than
English has been
excluded. It is because
if some language other
than English has been
selected, then it might
be difficult to study the
articles. It is a tough
task for self as well as
for the other ones.
Articles  The articles that were
related to teenage
pregnancy has been
included because the
topic focuses on it.
 The ones that were
related to the women's
pregnancy etc. has
been excluded because
the focus of the articles
must be on the teenage
pregnancy and there is
a difference between

the teenage pregnancy
and women's
pregnancy.
The PICO format is also discussed as under :
Population/Participants The population here will be teenage girls who
are suffering from the issue of pregnancy at a
very early age. Also, the population will
include the teenage girls from Sub-Saharan
only.
Interventions Teenage girls who have been the victim of
pregnancy at a very early age.
Comparisons Girls who are suffering from teenage
pregnancy and getting proper medical support
with the girls who have not been given any sort
of attention and treatment.
Outcomes The only outcome is to reduce the rate of
teenage pregnancy in the girls so that their
physical and mental condition can stay
maintained.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Morobadi, M.D. and Webber, L.M., 2014. Growing up with HIV in Southern Africa-HIV-
infected children and adolescents. Journal of Human Virology & Retrovirology, 1(1).
World Health Organization, 2017. Accelerating nutrition improvements in Sub-Saharan Africa:
scaling up nutrition interventions: final report 2012-2016.
Wight, D. and Fullerton, D., 2013. A review of interventions with parents to promote the sexual
health of their children. Journal of Adolescent Health. 52(1). pp.4-27.
Winner, B. and et.al., 2012. Effectiveness of long-acting reversible contraception. New England
Journal of Medicine. 366(21). pp.1998-2007.
Secura, G. M. and Peipert, J. F., 2014. Provision of no-cost, long-acting contraception and
teenage pregnancy. New England Journal of Medicine. 371(14). pp.1316-1323.
Lewis, L. N. and Skinner, S. R., 2010. Implanon as a contraceptive choice for teenage mothers: a
comparison of contraceptive choices, acceptability and repeat
pregnancy. Contraception. 81(5). pp.421-426.
Online
Africa: Strengthen Steps to End Child Marriage. 2015. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/12/09/africa-strengthen-steps-end-child-marriage>.
Ending Child marriage in Africa: A brief by girls not brides. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Child-marriage-in-Africa-
A-brief-by-Girls-Not-Brides.pdf>.
Ending Child Marriage in Africa: Opening the Door for Girls' Education, Health, and Freedom
from Violence. 2015. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/12/09/ending-child-marriage-africa>.
Making pregnancy safer. 2008. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/documents/newsletter/
mps_newsletter_issue6.pdf>.
Sommer M. 2011. An Overlooked Priority: Puberty in Sub-Saharan Africa. [Online]. Available
through: <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3093270/>.

Nutrition of Women and Adolescent Girls: Why It Matters. 2013. [Online]. Available through <
http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2003/NutritionofWomenandAdolescentGirlsWh
yItMatters.aspx>.
Teen Pregnancy in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Application of Social Disorganisation Theory. 2015.
[Online]. Available through: <http://paa2015.princeton.edu/papers/151509>.