HUGGING her five-month-old baby, Tariro smiles as she reminisces about the charming memories that led to her pregnancy.
BY HAZVINEI MWANAKA
But behind the bundle of joy in her arms, she has an intricate dual role to play now. Just 15 years old and still doing her Ordinary Level studies, she has already been cast into motherhood.
“After getting pregnant, I had to enrol at a city college for extra lessons since I could no longer continue with conventional schooling,” she says.
“I’m having extra lessons, but the baby I have just given birth to is another extra lesson.”
Tariro has to juggle between breastfeeding the baby and taking her studies. While many see it as a cause for celebration when a new-born is safely delivered, the baby is more of a burden to this teenage mother.
“My actions are now haunting me. I could have aborted or used protection,” she says.
She, however, remembers her friend who tried to abort, but ended up in hospital and subsequently died due to complications related to the attempted abortion.
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“It all started when I was staying with my aunt because my parents divorced long back. Their jobs demanded frequent travelling so most of the time we were left home alone,” she says.
“I hooked up with a certain guy in my neighbourhood whom I later had this child with.”
Her boyfriend eventually abandoned her because he was also too young to cope with responsibilities of being a teenage father.
As a teenage mother, Tariro faces a lot of challenges and stigma from family, community as well as school.
Some of her friends who are also single teenage mothers are suffering the same fate.
“Being a teenage single mother and being a grown-up single mother have similar challenges, but the former has worse consequences,” she adds, taking another glance at her baby wailing for milk.
According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), many young girls in Zimbabwe and Africa are enduring the same predicament.
The 2013 UNFPA State of World Population Report states that in every region of the world, impoverished, poorly educated and rural girls are more likely to become pregnant than their wealthier, urban, educated counterparts.
According to the 2011 Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey report, the fertility rate among teenage girls aged 15-19 in 2010/11 was 115 girls per 1 000 girls; a significant increase from 99/1 000 girls in 2005-6.
The survey further stipulates that a worrying trend is the comparison between rural and urban girls where girls living in the rural areas are twice as much affected by teenage pregnancies (144/1 000 girls) compared to 70/1 000 urban girls.
The causes of teenage pregnancy are multifaceted. Some cultural and religious norms, such as child marriage, also contribute to teenage pregnancy. Other social issues are inter-generational sexual relationships and sexual coercion.
Zimbabwe National Council for the Welfare of Children national director Taylor Nyanhete says teenage mothers face many challenges both physically and psychologically.
“There are many challenges faced by teenage mothers. They might not have enough breast milk for the child since their bodies are still developing.
They are likely to be single mothers because the men that engage in sexual intercourse with them are older and likely to be married or some will be teenagers like them, so cannot shoulder responsibilities that come with fatherhood,” Nyanhete says.
He adds that parents do not like their male children to marry single mothers as they are believed to be of loose morals and therefore not worth marrying.
“Since they do not have adequate information on parenting, they are likely to fall pregnant again as knowledge on reproductive health is still limited,” he says.
Nyanhete, however, bemoans delays by government to realign some laws that benefit children.
“Alignment of laws must be speeded up, for example, the Marriages Act and the Customary Law Act, which does not define age of consent, as well as improving sex education in schools with emphasis on reproductive health,” he says.
Health experts believe that teenagers are more likely to suffer complications during pregnancy. Their babies are more likely to be born prematurely, have low birth weight or other serious health problems which put babies at a greater risk of disability or death.
According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, depression is common among pregnant teens. Teen parents may feel guilty or anxious about the future.
Teen parents are also more likely to subject their children to abuse and neglect because they feel overwhelmed by their unfamiliar, ever-demanding roles as parents.
