Teen Pregnancy in Jamaica mainly happens to girls who come from inner city impoverished communities where sex education is scarce and birth control nearly impossible to access for youth under 16. When a girl gets pregnant she must leave the formal school system but can come here, to the Women's Centre of Jamaica, to have her baby and continue her studies.
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Getting pregnant in grade 9 from a high school boyfriend was not easy but her mother stood by her and now she is completing highschool.
“I don't want my daughter to feel ashamed of herself, or to think that she was a mistake. To me she is not a mistake. I love her and I want to be by her and I will do my best”
Women’s Centre ensures that girls do not have to drop out of school. With a one year old baby, this girl is excelling in her studies and preparing for nursing school.
This girl became pregnant from her first time with a boy she barely knew and has had no contact with since. She wants to be become a chef, already making plans to go it alone.
Many factors play into teen pregnancy, including lack of parental supervision, lack of sex education, and difficulty accessing birth control. Cultural factors put pressure on both boys and girls to have sex early.
Social taboos leave teen moms highly stigmatized in society and perpetuate a cycle of poverty and exclusion. Pregnant girls and teens with their babies are often harassed and insulted when out in public.
Social stigma affects teen dads too. When this boy became a father at 16 he had to leave home, and his classmates relentlessly teased him, so he left school.
After dropping out of school he found work. He is helping to support his baby and girlfriend who he visits many times a week.
The rate of girls having a second pregnancy after attending the program remains below two per cent.
The Women’s Centre has had girls as young as 11 and 12 attend the program. All girls are required to report the father of their baby to the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA), a branch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force. Though many claim to not know his identity.
The older girls study and prepare to write their grade 12 national exams.
They also prepare mentally and practically for the birth of their baby.
This 18 year old mother is preparing for her grade 12 national exams and after is going to study agriculture and become a poultry farmer. “Being a farmer is my dream”
This guidance counsellor works in the Jonestown Outreach centre, one of Kingston’s roughest neighbourhoods, held inside a local church
“Our main focus is the empowerment of the girls. Once we can get them to realize their worth, then everything else falls into place. They should leave here with their goals set out for their future”
A 15 year old girl writes a letter to her unborn baby as one of her class assignments at the Jonestown Outreach Centre
A 14 year old girl lies down to rest at the Jonestown Outreach centre, inner city Kingston. Girls often come to school exhausted either from being in the early stages of pregnancy or from from tending to a newborn.
abies are cared for in the nursery next door, where teen moms can visit and feed them on breaks.
The women’s Centre believes that the greatest success for any teen mother is for her to become independent, with the skills to support herself and her child.
Teen pregnancy in Jamaica is high, especially among school age girls. It is much higher than the global average and mostly affects girls from rural and inner-city communities plagued by poverty, crime, gang violence, and where one or both parents is absent, usually the father.
Sex-education in Jamaica is not adequate, and many girls by the age of puberty haven’t been taught the basics about their bodies: menstruation, ovulation, and pregnancy. They do not know they can get pregnant from just one time and are shocked and even suicidal to find out they ended up pregnant from having sex the first time.
In Jamaica, under the Sexual Offences Act it is illegal to engage in sexual activity before age 16. Therefore, even peer-to-peer sex is considered a criminal act. For this reason, teachers are reluctant to provide sex education to under-age teens, and birth control is nearly impossible to access. Teen mothers are reluctant to name the father of the child, for fear he may be criminally charged.
Despite the Christian values that guide Jamaican government policies, there are contradictory cultural norms that put extreme pressure on both girls and boys to have sex early and have multiple partners.
In 1978 The Women's Centre of Jamaica was founded to help pregnant girls stay in school. A pregnant teen can come here to continue her studies until the baby is born. She will receive counselling, mentorship, and training in practical trades like cooking and housekeeping, to increase the chance of finding work on graduation.
After the baby is born, girls finish out the school year here, while the baby is cared for in a free nursery next door.
No data exists on what percentage of adolescent mothers successfully complete high school, but research shows their prospects are greatly increased.
If a girl becomes pregnant, she is required to leave the public school system. Life can soon become a downward spiral. Without an education her prospects dwindle. She may become dependent on her family, and may not have support from the baby's father.
The unemployment rate among women in Jamaica is 17.4 percent, compared with 9.6 percent for men. She can soon become trapped in a cycle of poverty.
Most girls become pregnant from a high school boyfriend; but research shows that in Jamaica 50% of girls’ first time having sex is forced or unwanted. Once pregnant, there is no way out, as abortion is illegal.
In 2013 a policy passed which allows teen moms to later reintegrate into the public school system. Prior to this law, re-admission was at the discretion of the school principal and often denied due to the widespread stigma of teen pregnancy.
- Successful reintegration depends on the girls’ resources and support.
- There are currently 18 outreach centres across the island of Jamaica which in total enrol 1250 girls each year. Half of those girls are under 16.
Sources:
- https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/dasmine-kennedy_final_20171101_web.pdf
- http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20150315/baby-father-unknown-underage-girls-refusing-say-who-got-them-pregnant
- http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Teen-pregnancies-going-down_69621
- http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Child-moms-boom_16105672
- http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Worrying-signs_14877467
- https://jis.gov.jm/report-sexual-abuse-children-cisoca/
- http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20180225/second-chance-teens-diversion-programme-keeping-children-who