Increase in pregnancies among girls and adolescents in Colombia

This September 27 is World Day for the Prevention of Teenage Pregnancy and according to Dane, the numbers are not encouraging in Colombia. According to the statistical entity, in the country, the pregnancy of girls and adolescents between 14 and 19 years old increased by 6.3%.

“63.7% of girls aged 10 to 14 in rural areas of the country, who had a son or daughter, did not attend an education center in 2018,” the entity said.

Danish data shows that in 2020 there were 384 births to mothers under the age of 14 and most of the fathers were men over the age of 20.

“For the second quarter of 2021, there was an annual increase of 6.3% in the number of births to girls and adolescents between the ages of 14 and 19, from 24,849 to 26,405. age 14 increased by 22.2% “

WHO warns that teenage pregnancies have effects on both maternal and child health, making Colombia a region with widespread health problems due to this scourge.

In addition, it ensures that prenatal deaths are higher for children born to mothers under the age of 20, as well as a higher rate of premature births, fetal malformations or heart or respiratory complications.

For its part, the Icbf indicated that teenage pregnancies are a cause that “discourages the productivity and economic growth of a society”.

“Teenage pregnancy also causes multiple social problems, such as: family conflicts, dropping out of school, life change plans, discrimination, bonded or early marriage, reduced income and poverty”

UNICEF, for its part, emphasizes that this increase in teenage and underage pregnancies can be directly linked to the pandemic that the world is experiencing.

“The spread of COVID-19 and some of the measures taken to stop it, such as social isolation, exacerbate the risk of violence against children. Unfortunately, most cases of violence in the first years of life are committed by a direct member of the family or someone close to the child ”.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Health reported that in 2020 teenage pregnancy rates fell by 4.17, from 57.95 births in 2019 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19, to 53, 78 births per 1,000 women in the same age group in 2020.

“The reduction in the rate of teenage pregnancy reflects important work and pointed out that Colombia maintains a decrease represented by more than 8,700 births per year, which shows the effects of interventions carried out at the intersectoral level to affect the determinants of the teenage pregnancy ”, underlined the coordinator of the Social Coexistence and Citizenship Group of the Ministry of Health, Ana María Peñuela.

By regions, according to the entity, Bogotá, Atlántico, Cundinamarca, Bolívar, Valle del Cauca, Nariño, Magdalena and Sucre, were the regions of Colombia in which teenage pregnancy fell the most in 2020, while in Putumayo , Quindío, Chocó and Meta, the number of deliveries increased in the same year.

On the other hand, the coordinator of the Social Coexistence and Citizenship Group of the Ministry of Health also announced that, despite the figures for the reduction of teenage pregnancies in Colombia, the rate is still high compared to the average of countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

“For 2019, it reported a rate of 21.56 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19,” the official said.

In more precise data, according to the Ministry of Health, in 2019 there were 115,176 births to women between 15 and 19 years old, while in 2020 the figure was 106,957, that is to say – to say that the number of births in Colombia has decreased by 8,219.

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