The Ghanaian Journal

Teenage pregnancy has become a societal problem, and governments, religious bodies and civil societies are working hard to curb the menace. Some young people share their views on teenage parenting.

Steve, spoke on the fact that it was not right for any young person to become a parent, since that would make the individual risk having unhealthy children.

He is of the view that once teenagers could not support themselves, it would be impossible for them to cater for babies and therefore, it was totally out of place for teens to have children.

Besides, no teen girl would be able to take good care of a baby she gives birth to.

Sammy believed that the idea of teens getting pregnant will one day reduce drastically. This is because he thought enough education had been done to get teenagers to know the negative effects of experimenting with sex, which often resulted in unwanted pregnancies.
He advised teens to be wise and make firm decisions to avoid messing up their future.

Sheila said the more important consideration for her was the mental readiness of the girl. “Getting pregnant and carrying a baby for nine months is a very big responsibility.

This process should not be seen as fashion,” she advised. And said “girls are obviously not prepared mentally for parenting because they are also children.

In fact, they would wake up to the reality of soiled diapers and sleepless nights if they ever dared! And then they would realise the huge mistake they have made”.

She cautioned teenagers that the most important reason to prevent teenage pregnancy was the danger of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV/AIDs. No one wants to die young.

Atsu pointed out that teenage pregnancy was not good under any circumstance, because more often than not, it cut short the education of the pregnant mother, and very few teenagers even from wealthy families were able to further their education after delivery.

Nelson remarked that teenage pregnancy did no one good — not even the girl, baby or the boy. Very often, both mother and child were the losers at the end of the day.

In his view, teenage pregnancy showed the low moral standards among teenagers, where standard family values were missing. To him, “It made no sense under any circumstance for a young girl to get pregnant”.

The girl’s education was very likely to come to an end. And in nine out of 10 cases, the boy in question would not accept responsibility for his action but he would rather continue with his education.

He said that there was also a stigma attached to teenage mothers and the whole family, because that attitude ran contrary to strong family values which Ghanaians were known for.