On Wednesday, 23 April WHO will release a new guideline aimed at preventing adolescent pregnancy and its significant related health complications. The guideline includes a number of important recommendations with a particular focus on ending child marriage, extending girls’ schooling, and improving young people’s access to and use of contraception – all critical factors for reducing early pregnancies among teenagers around the world.
More than 21 million adolescent girls become pregnant each year in low and middle-income countries, around half of which are unintended. Early pregnancy brings serious health risks, including relatively higher rates of infections and preterm births as well as complications from unsafe abortions – linked to particular challenges in accessing safe and respectful care. Complications relating to adolescent pregnancy are the leading cause of death globally among 15-19 year old girls.
This guideline updates an earlier edition of the guideline on adolescent pregnancy prevention from 2011, and complements WHO’s related guidance around health services for adolescents, comprehensive sexuality education, and gender-based violence.
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In Ghana, more than half a million teenagers are on record to have gotten pregnant between 2016 and 2020, data from the Ghana Health Service District Health Information Management Health System (DHIMS) reveals.
Between 2016 and 2020, about 555,575 teenagers aged 10 to 19 years are said to have gotten pregnant. Within the five years, 13,444 teenagers between the ages of 10 and 14 got pregnant, while some 542,131 teenagers aged 15 to 19 years got pregnant. On average, a little over 112,800 teenagers get pregnant annually.
The annual breakdown for pregnancies involving 10 to 14-year-olds is: in 2016, about 2,325 cases were recorded; in 2017, some 2,585 teenagers got pregnant; and in 2018, the figure increased to 2,968 but reduced to 2,856 pregnancy cases in 2020.
From 2016 to 2020, the Ashanti region recorded 2,165 cases of pregnancies among teenagers under 14. The Eastern region followed with 1,528 cases. Central region recorded some 1,327 cases.
The 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) by the Ghana Statistical Service has indicated a rise in the rate of teenage pregnancy by 1% from 14% in 2014 GDHS to 15% in the 2022 GDHS.
In other words, 2 in 10 women aged 15-19 had been pregnant before, at the time of the survey. This phenomenon according to the service could be a result of the high sexual and reproductive behaviours among men and women before attaining age 15 as well as the growth rate of individuals who have their first sexual intercourse by age 18.
Meanwhile, there was stability in the rate of teenage mothers in Ghana as the data from the survey indicates a zero percent change from the figure in 2014.
According to the service, teenage motherhood in Ghana was at 11% of women aged 15-19 in 2014(GDHS) and has been the same in 2022(GDHS).
