PHILIPSBURG--The Social Economic Council SER drew attention to the issue of teenage pregnancy in its advice to government to start a conditional cash transfer programme called ‘Boost St Maarten’ to reduce income poverty and increase human capacity development.
The advice report is dated March 19 and was posted on the National Gazette on July 24. SER says in the report that the disadvantages for the social economic development of a mother and child when teenage girls give birth are well documented.
SER alluded to a study from the Department of Collective Preventive Services (CPS), which says that teenage mothers often lack sufficient parental skills. Teenage births often contribute to a cycle of poor education, poor(er) health, poverty and less human capacity development.
Teenage mothers depend more often on social protection systems and their children on correctional facilities. Teenage mothers are forced to drop out from (high) school and their children tend to become teen parents themselves. SER says given that teenage births are a clear marker for inter-generational transmission of poverty, the reduction of teenage pregnancies should be addressed by “Boost St. Maarten.”
SER said it interviewed five health care and two other professionals who deal with the consequences of poverty in their daily professional tasks. From these interviews and discussions within the board several ideas emerged which relate to the social fabric of poor neighbourhoods, basic life, parenting skills and knowledge of the poor to cope with adversity.
The first concern, SER said, is teenage births and the related topic of family planning. Several health care professionals have the notion that teenage births are increasing, SER said. Data from 2013 shows that 51 births (9.9 per cent) to teen mothers were registered at the Census Office; 32 (8.4 per cent) at the Baby Clinic and 79 at St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC).
SER said it was concerned about the differences in registration between these organisations, given that the right to a nationality and to be registered directly after birth are protected in article 24 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
“If we assume that the number of girls in this age group taken from the Census 2011 is still accurate (1,224 girls) and if we further assume that the SMMC has the most complete picture of (teenage) births, then 6.4 per cent of all the girls between the ages of 15 to 19 years old have gotten pregnant in 2013… If we assume that 6.4 per cent of the girls get pregnant each year, if we assume that the number of girls in the age group remains the same (1,224) in the future and if we assume teenage girls don’t get pregnant twice, then after five years 345 teenage girls would have given birth in St. Maarten, which constitutes 28 per cent of the age group,” SER said in the report.
“In other words, more than one quarter of the girls living in St. Maarten will give birth during their teenage years. Considering the above, the concern regarding teenage pregnancies and family planning are valid.”
SER said there is no data available to suggest that teenage girls from poor households give birth more often than other teenage girls. “However, from their own observations health care professionals tend to think that there is a connection related to social and cultural factors typically present in poor neighbourhoods. The professionals learned that teenage girls from poor households seem responsive to sexual attention from teenage boys at an earlier age. Poor teenage girls seem more susceptible for myths governing their sexual behaviour, pregnancy and the workings of different contraceptives; a lack of knowledge gives room for these myths in the beliefs of teenage girls. In poor neighbourhoods (teenage) girls sometimes start their sexual behaviour at 12 years of age.”
SER said teenage girls from poor households seem less concerned about their future and how a child would influence this future. “The parents of teenage girls seem less concerned about the possibility of early pregnancy than other parents; a teenage pregnancy is often welcomed in poor households. Sometimes parents of poor households show a lack of involvement in the life of their teenage children. Poor households are often run by a single mother without a father figure present to share the responsibilities of parenthood with. This also leads to less parental oversight because single parents need job(s) and therefore don’t have sufficient time to supervise their (teenage) children.”
SER said the observations from health care and other professionals substantiate the study of the Collective Preventive Services mentioned earlier.
“Both the quantitative data in this chapter and the observation of health care professionals give reason to connect family planning, teenage pregnancies, parenting in general and life-skill development with the conditions in the proposed conditional cash transfer programme.”
The full text of the report can be read at www.sersxm.org.
