SITUATION ANALYSIS

Jose Rizal once said Ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan (The youth is the hope of our

future).

But as we observe from todays situation, it seems to be a contrary from the famous

saying of our national hero. Almost every year there is a rapid increase on the number of teenage

pregnancy cases in the Philippines.

Teenage pregnancyis defined as the condition of being pregnant of adolescence aged 10

to 19. Where in adolescence is the stage where young girls are at the transition of their lives

where they start shifting from being kids to adult. It is the age where they should just worry

about how they will deal with all the changes that happens to their body. But some of these teens

seem to be excited and somehow skip the normal process of growing up. Some gets pregnant

before they even reach the legal age of eighteen.

Those who are affected are the girlsthemselves up to the national society. The victims of

teenage pregnancy are not just the girls but also their child, their parents and relatives and the

national society as a whole.

Teen pregnancy is a communal problem, a family problem, and a personal problem all

rolled into one. It frequently goes hand in hand with premarital sex. Problems come when the

news needs to breach each parents party. A spring of thought flash before ones eyes, and

registers only two; whether, to back the hell up abort the child or carry on with the pregnancy

but sign up for adoption - or get the hell in have the child with all its perks and consequences

alike.

Teenage pregnancy has been a worldwide issue that needs to be confronted to mitigate

the problems of maternal adolescent childbearing, especially in the third world countries. In fact,
it has emerged to be one of the major public health problems in South Asia (Raj et al., 2010) and

in Western Europe (Seamarck, 2001). It is reported in India that adolescent pregnancy is one of

the serious health threat for women aged 15-19 years old (Patra, 2016). In Nigeria, the ratio of

teenage mothers to women in their 20s who actually die during pregancy and childbirth is 5:1. In

addition, they likely have higher mortality rates for infants (Amoran, 2012).

However, the Philippines have the same predicament regarding teenage pregnancy. Due

to the official ranking of the United Nation Population Fund Agency in 2012, the number of

teenage pregnancies, aged 10-19 years old, have increased to 70% over the last ten years. As a

result, this has imposed a huge problem towards the achievement of Millenium Development

Goals that puts the country in red alert (Philippine News Agency, 2012). Moreover, 14% of the

teenage girls in the age bracket of 15-19 were reported for the first time to be already mothers or

have had several children in the 2014 survey of Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality as compared

to the 8% of the 2002 survey (Au-Yeung, 2014).

Recent (2014) data from the Philippine Statistical Authority (PSA) reveal that every hour,

24 babies are delivered by teenage mothers. According to the 2014 Young Adult Fertility and

Sexuality (YAFS) study, around 14 percent of Filipino girls aged 15 to 19 are either pregnant for

the first time or are already mothersmore than twice the rate recorded in 2002. Among six

major economies in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Philippines has the highest

rate of teenage pregnancies and is the only country where the rate is increasing, per the United

Nations Population Fund.

According to Josefina Natividad, YAFS coordinator and director of the University of the

Philippines Population Institute, young Filipinos have limited access to sex education and ASRH

services, especially if they are underage and unmarried. Seventy-eight percent are not using any
form of contraception or protection against sexually transmitted diseases and infections when

they are having sex for the first time. While government programs aim to delay the beginning of

childbearing and hasten fertility decline, teenage pregnancies continue to increase.

Data show that pregnant teenagers in the Philippines are mostly 17 to 19 years old. They

live with their mothers, parents, or relatives. The father of the child is, in most cases, a teenage

boy.

National Youth Commission commissioner Percy Cendaa said teenage pregnancy rate in

the Cordillera Administrative Region remains a cause of alarm. In the Young Adult Fertility and

Sexuality (YAFS) survey in 2013, the region registered 18.4 percent for teen fertility making the

Cordillera top all other regions prompting alarm bells to be raised by both the private sector as

well as government line agencies.

Regarding health concerns, teenage mothers face critical health risks including:

inadequate nutrition during pregnancy due to poor eating habits; dangers associated with the

reproductive organs not ready for birth; and maternal death due to higher risk of eclampsia,

among others.

Alarmingly, while maternal deaths are decreasing in the Philippines, teenage maternal

deaths are increasing. Ten percent of pregnant teenagers died in the last year, according to the

PSA. Data from the WHO also show a high and increasing incidence of fetal death in Filipino

mothers under 20.

Knowing these facts, some teenagers still engage into premarital sex not thinking about

the possible consequences of their actions. A lot of questions arise such as, what if the girl gets

pregnant? How do they provide for the child if their parents cut them short financially? Will they

be able to go to grad school? What will become of their future? What will become of their
childs future? By this time, they would have to contend with the pressures of parenthood. What

will truly bother them in the long run is the reality of whether or not they can fulfill their

obligation as parents, and the security of their childs future. Teenage pregnancy is becoming a

societal problem that branches out to other problems.

One solution that most teens think of is resorting into induced abortion, especially during

their first trimester, in which has a lot of risks to their health. Teenage abortion patients are up to

twice as likely to experience cervical lacerations during abortion compared to older women. This

increased risk is thought to be due to the fact that teens have smaller cervixes which are more

difficult to dilate or grasp with instruments.

Teens are also at higher risk for post-abortion infections such as pelvic inflammatory

disease (PID) and endometritis (inflammation of the uterus), which may be caused either by the

spread of an unrecognized sexually transmitted disease into the uterus during the abortion, or by

micro-organisms on the surgical instruments which are inserted into the uterus. Researchers

believe that teens may be more susceptible to infections because their bodies are not yet fully

developed and do not produce pathogens that are found in the cervical mucus of older women

and which can protect them from infection.

Other studies have shown that young women who have had PID previously or who have

not had a previous full-term birth are more vulnerable to post-abortion infections. In addition,

because teens are less likely than adults to take prescribed antibiotics or follow other regimens

for the treatment of medical problems such as infection, they are at greater risk for infertility,

hysterectomy, ectopic pregnancy and other serious complications.

 Because teens are more likely to abort their first pregnancy, they face other risks as well.

For instance, research has shown that an early full term birth can reduce a womans risk of breast

cancer, but that induced abortion of a first pregnancy carries a 30 to 50 percent increased risk of

breast cancer. In addition, aborting teens lose the protective effect of having a full-term

pregnancy at a younger age, which reduces breast cancer risk.

Other consequences of being a teenage parent are changes in their social life. Caring for a

new baby requires a sacrifice of sleep, expenses, and time. For a teen mom who was previously

engaged in social activities, it might be a shocking change to suddenly be unable to participate in

many extracurricular activities. The amount of isolation that she feels can be directly related to

the involvement of the babys father or other family members. With a lot of financial help or

offers to help with the baby, some teen moms are still able to enjoy a social life and can see

friends or participate in activities on a semi-regular basis. However, some teen moms find

themselves overwhelmed by their new lifestyle and will have to work to make new friends they

have more in common with.

Teen moms experience a social change during pregnancy as well. The lifestyle changes

required in pregnancy means that activities with drinking or smoking are no longer an option,

and the extra rest needed in pregnancy can cut back on the energy available for time spent with

friends. Finally, the high stress levels that come with anticipating the new baby can make it

difficult to enjoy extracurricular activities.

Most teen mothers become single parents because the father of their babies runs away

because they are not ready for responsibilities not knowing that it also has a lot of consequences

not just for the mother but also for the child.
 Children from homes run by teenage mothers have to face almost insurmountable

obstacles in life. The incidents of depression and mental health problems, the lack of father

figures, and the high rate of poverty often connected to children in homes run by teenage

mothers put them at serious disadvantages when compared to children raised in nuclear families.

The absence of a father figure in the home brings about a chain reaction of dilemmas. The

emotional problems that children suffer because there is no father in their life can be potentially

hazardous to their future. Many children tend to be effected mentally because these powerful

emotions have the potential to do permanent damage in a child's life. Children may experience

sadness and depression, aggressive behavior, frequent illness, difficulty in school, eating

problems, and sleeping disorders.

Many children also suffer from various social difficulties and self-esteem problems that

come along with living in a one-parent household. The pressure that children raised by teenage

parents go through is tremendous. Children who don't have fathers present in the home often feel

unloved. There is no trauma as excruciatingly painful as parental rejection and there is probably

no worse of a way to wreck a person's life.

Males are affected differently by the absence of a father than females are. A boy needs a

male role model in his life so that he can learn how to become a man. Children who don't have

good role models often choose negative, unsavory characters to mold themselves after. These

children become susceptible to many of the dangerous risks associated with children who are

raised by teenage parents. "Males that grow up in one-parent homes may gain negative

personality traits like immaturity, laziness, and disrespect for women (Meurer, Meurer, &

Holloway,1996)."
 Females who grow up without fathers in the home usually end up having pre-marital sex

(Hinckely, 1998). They subconsciously want to make up for the affection that they didn't

receive from their fathers. They become too dependent on men because they want someone who

can replace their father. These women usually don't know how to relate to other males and they

have the wrong idea about what a relationship should be like. Girls may even grow up to hate

men because of an unconscious resentment toward absent fathers.

It seems unfair that these children have to suffer for the mistakes of their parents.

Children raised by teenage parents are brought into a highly competitive world where they start

life at a handicap. These children are automatically placed in the lower class. This is a powerful

term because it encompasses every aspect of these children's lives. From the rat-infested housing

where they live to the poorly equipped schools that they attend. Low class is the word that

describes their lives and their potential to become productive citizens.

Teen pregnancy is a controversial issue because it effects society as a whole. Teenage

mothers often raise children who never learn how to live productive lifestyles. Negative elements

like drug addiction and crime seem to be the only outlets that are available to lonely, confused

children who live in poverty-stricken cities. For many of these children there are only the options

of dead-end jobs, jail or early death. Many of these children end up having their own children at

an early age; therefore perpetuating the vicious cycle of poverty, poor education, joblessness, and

lack of hope for the future.

Teenage girls that get pregnant in our community become overwhelmed with the

pressures of supporting their children financially while trying to instill morals and ethics in their

lives. We as a community need to come together with the government and help these mothers
out. The problems of a teenage mother and her children eventually become the problem of all of

society. Children come first because they are our future. Every child in the country should be

afforded an equal opportunity to succeed no matter its family, racial, or financial background.

Supporting teen mothers and their families and educating people about the responsibilities and

the risks of having sex can do this.

We, as a nation need to spread awareness about teen pregnancy so that we can reduce the

amount of teenage parents. If teens understand the negative effects of being a teen parent, they

may think twice about their actions. We can raise awareness through many ways. No matter how

hard, we need to do it. Teen pregnancy is a huge issue that needs to be addressed and stopped.

In the face of numerous challenges that Filipino adolescents face every day

discrimination, gender-based violence, harmful gender stereotypesthey must be equipped with

the life skills and assets to help them make the best decisions for themselves and their

community. When adolescents choose to have sex, they have a right to access not just

information but also inclusive ASRH services.

This study aims to know the perspective of high school students towards the increasing

number of teenage pregnancy cases. The researcher hopes that the research would pave way for

teens especially high school students, especially girls, to be aware of the current state of teenage

pregnancy in the country and the locality. The researcher also hopes that through this research

the respondents would feel responsible enough not to be involved in anything that may harm

them. Because at the end of the day, when an adolescent, especially a girl, knows her rights, is

empowered to choose, and is heard, she can improve not only her life but also the life of her

immediate and future families.