An increasing number of young people with unplanned pregnancies reported at the Reproductive Health Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in 2015.
In an interview with the Junior Graphic, Dr Emmanuel Ameh, said in the last four years, there has been an increase in the number of teenage pregnancies reported in some regions of the country.
However, he said there was a decrease in the figures between 2014 and 2015 by 37 per cent for adolescent presenting for unintended pregnancy care adding that although there was a decrease, it did not mean the situation was any better across the country since most adolescents do not report at the hospital.
He said most of the adolescent pregnancies presented at the unit were in the late adolescent age group, between the ages of 16 and 19, although there were fewer cases in the 10–13 years group.
Dr Ameh, therefore, advised parents to initiate sexual communication with their children at an early age.
He noted that the responsibility of talking to children about these issues lie with parents and that studies have shown that children prefer to have their sexual communication with their parents; adolescents who have this communication early with their parents are less likely to engage in high risk sex which can lead to unintended pregnancies.
He said it was also important for parents to create an environment to foster such discussions, be honest and frank with their children.
According to him, “during such discussions, honesty is important to make children take such advice seriously.”
He said in situations where parents were unable to answer some of the sexual and reproductive health questions, they could always seek advice from professionals.
He said when parents failed to educate their children early on sex; they tended to seek this information from their peers who may misinform them.
Dr Ameh said it was also important for the school curriculum to have dedicated sessions for sexual and reproductive health issues so that students would be taught life saving skills to enable them to abstain from sex at such early age and prevent high risk sex.
On what is being done to address the situation of adolescent health issues, including pregnancies, Dr Ameh said the Ghana Health Service, through the Adolescent Health and Development Programme and in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service, has come up with programmes to meet the peculiar health needs of young people.
He said the initiative had trained more people, including teachers, on sexual and reproductive health issues; formation of adolescent health clubs in schools, adolescent corners in health facilities and communities where adolescent can walk in and obtain the right information needed.
Another part of this activity is the “Yolo” programme which was aired on TV3 and GTV in the last quarter of 2015.
