Somchit Inthamith, Lao Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, has called for Laos to address high levels of teen pregnancy through sex education. This would be a joint health and education initiative aimed at encouraging girls to complete their schooling by teaching them about the choices they have and the precautions they can take.
The Lao Social Indicator Survey of 2011-2012 reported an adolescent birth rate of 94 out of every 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19. Teenage girls lack the physical and emotional maturity to handle pregnancy and childbirth which is why medical complications represent the largest cause of death for Lao girls between the ages of 15 and 19.
Girls living in both rural and mountainous areas of the country are over-represented in this statistic. These girls often have little opportunity to gain an education and instead ending up married as teenagers. For these young girls, it is considered normal to begin a family at the age of 14 or 15.
Tod is a rural girl who was married and pregnant at the age of 15. Her story demonstrates how dangerous early marriages and pregnancies can be for girls like her. When she went into labor she followed her culture’s customs and went into the forest to give birth on her own. She was lucky and survived the ordeal, but her premature baby did not. Lao girls in similar remote regions of the country commonly have no access to medical care or the knowledge they need to take care of their bodies and their babies properly.
The UNFPA recently released a report entitled Motherhood in Childhood: Facing the Challenge of Adolescent Pregnancy which discussed the prevalence of teenage pregnancy in the developing world. Girls from an impoverished, rural, or poorly educated backgrounds are at especially high risk of teenage pregnancy. With few options in life and little access to sexual health information and services, these girls are more likely to become pregnant than wealthier, urban, and educated girls.
UN Population Fund (UNFPA) representative for Laos, Esther Muia, stated “very often, teenage pregnancy forces girls to leave school and a girl without an education is a girl who lacks the skills to find a job, build a future for herself and her family, and to contribute to her nation’s development.”
Teenage pregnancy poses severe risks to the health of teenage girls, as well as to her future education and income potential. These early births also negatively impact the lives of the children and ultimately their communities as well. There is hope, however, in the knowledge that girls who remain in school and get an education will have a lower risk of teenage pregnancy.
“By empowering girls, protecting their rights and helping them prevent pregnancy, we can make it possible for girls to realize their potential to become equal partners in development,” stated Somchit Inthamith when arguing to add sexual education to Lao school curricula.
Creative Commons Love: Staffan Scherz on Flickr.com
Written by Amanda Lubit