TEEN mothers of Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) now have the opportunity of accessing proper and efficient healthcare during pregnancy.This is due to continued efforts being made by the Ministries of Public Health (MPH) and Education (MoE) to develop adolescent health departments and designate adolescent clinic days at health centres countrywide. These departments are responsible for training healthcare workers to manage clinics and create support groups, while adolescent clinic days would give youths the opportunity to access various kinds of services, wellness checkups, voluntary counselling and testing (VCT), and oral care included.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 16 million teenage girls become mothers every year, and adolescent girls accounted for 97 per 1,000 births in 2013. This being the case, the initiative taken by the ministries is greatly needed in order to sensitise adolescents about teenage pregnancy as well as guide young mothers through motherhood.

National Adolescent Health Coordinator, Dr. Oneka Scott, told the Guyana Chronicle recently that, to date, the two initiatives at reference have been launched in Regions 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice), Four (Demerara-Mahaica), Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and Eight (Potaro-Siparuni).

The initiatives, she said, originated in Japan, which offered a one-month training course on community interventions to improve maternal health. Dr. Scott benefited from that course, and has been added to the community parenting support group because of that training.

And both ministers of public health have called for, and are in full support of, the provision of services for adolescents. As part of the programme, young adolescent mothers and their spouses will, on a monthly basis, be invited to learn about the basics of pregnancy.

“The men are taught everything they need to know, and there is a heavy focus on family planning,” Dr. Scott said.

And in the ongoing effort to have adolescents and teen moms receive the best health information and services, the Ministry of Public Health, in conjunction with the Regional Health Office of Region Three, has now made it possible for young people to have their day once a week — at the West Demerara Regional Hospital as well as at the Parika Health Centre.

SAFE MOTHERHOOD
These initiatives are part of the Ministry of Public Health’s aim to reduce maternal mortality by focusing attention on safe motherhood.

“Far too often, young people may turn up at the Emergency Room at GPHC with a complication of Type One diabetes called ketoacidosis; maybe even in coma… Never before diagnosed because no one checked their blood sugar as routine screening,” Dr. Scott said.

She noted that such things happen because of the absence of basic education on menstrual hygiene. “Many young girls don’t understand what their menstrual cycle is, or how to interpret their days; and worse is that many grown Guyanese women who have borne children don’t either,” Dr Scott explained.

She stressed that the adolescent clinic seeks to provide a forum where doctors and nurses can interface with young people in and out of school, helping them to make informed choices.

She also acknowledged that even though it may be a lot of work, she is assured that “the fruits will be too much at the harvest, and the healthcare workers will have fun helping young people to make informed choices.”

During an interaction with young mothers, the difficulties of raising a child at a young age were highlighted. Some indicated that they were uneducated and jobless; some even indicated that they were single and were fending on their own. Thus they openly welcomed the support from the ministries, noting that it would open new avenues and opportunities for them to progress as young mothers.