Zimbabwe has witnessed a surge in teenage pregnancies, with the age group contributing a 21 percent of antenatal care bookings in health facilities.The worrying statistics were revealed recently during the launch of the ‘Not in My Village’ campaign by the government of Zimbabwe with support from United Nations population fund (UNFPA) and other donors in a bid to fight and stop the increase in teenage pregnancies in the country.
In a statement released by UNFPA said the launch of the “Not-In-My-Village” campaign comes against disturbing data from the National Assessment on Adolescent Pregnancies in Zimbabwe (June 2023) which was conducted by the Centre for Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Research Zimbabwe under the leadership of the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare with technical and financial support from UNESCO, UNFPA and UNICEF.
“A key finding of the Assessment is that 21% of antenatal care bookings were among adolescents aged 10-19 years, translating to 358,458 pregnant adolescents from an estimated 1,706,946 bookings made in 1,560 health care facilities between 2019 and 2022.
“The study also shows that 1,532 maternal deaths were recorded over the same period, with around 25% of them being among adolescent and young women under 24 years,” read part of the statement.The national prevalence rate of teenage pregnancy had increased to 22% from 9% in 2016 when compared to the findings from the National Fertility Study.
‘Not-In-My-Village’campaign is being championed by adolescents and young people themselves, through the Young People’s Network on Sexual and Reproductive Health, HIV and AIDS, working with the National AIDS Council and spearheaded by Chiefs in their respective communities, the campaign seeks to mobilize joint community efforts to tackle adolescent teenage pregnancies.
