CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Related literature

Teenage pregnancies and teenage motherhood are a cause for concern

worldwide. From a historical point of view, teenage pregnancies are nothing new.

For much of human history, it was absolutely common that girls married during

their late adolescence and experienced first birth during their second decade of

life. This kind of reproductive behavior was socially desired and considered as

normal. Nowadays, however, the prevention of teenage pregnancies and

teenage motherhood is a priority for public health in nearly all developed and

increasingly in developing countries. For a long time, teenage pregnancies were

associated with severe medical problems; however, most of data supporting this

viewpoint have been collected some decades ago and reflect mainly the situation

of per se socially disadvantaged teenage mothers. According to more recent

studies, teenage pregnancies are not per se risky ones. A clear risk group are

extremely young teenage mothers (younger than 15 years) who are confronted

with various medical risks, such as preeclampsia, preterm labor, and small for

gestational age newborns but also marked social disadvantage, such as poverty,

unemployment, low educational level, and single parenting.

 South Asia has a large proportion of young people in the world and teenage

pregnancy has emerged as one of the major public health problem among them.

The objective of this study is to systematically review to identify the risk factors

associated with teenage pregnancy in South Asian countries.

Out of the seven countries in South Asia, most of the studies were related to

Nepal, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. Socio-economic factors, low

educational attainment, cultural and family structure were all consistently

identified as risk factors for teenage pregnancy. Majority of teenage girls are

reported with basic knowledge on sexual health however, very few of them have

used the knowledge into practice.

From 2000 to 2010, the number of live births by teenage mothers in the

Philippines rose by more than 60 percent, latest data from the National Statistics

Office showed. Another alarming fact is that the number of teenage mothers who

gave birth to their second or third child during their teenage year has increased in

the last 10 years. This is according to the data shown in the press conference in

Quezon City by Carmelita Ericta, administrator and civil registrar general of the

National Statistics Office.

RELATED STUDIES

Local Studies

Young, poor and pregnant-- this is the situation of most adolescent mums in the

Philippines. While teenage pregnancies in Southeast Asia are declining, in the

Philippines, its on the rise. Every hour, 24 babies are born to mothers who are children

as well- some as young as 10 years old.

 In Happyland, Tondo, stories of very young girls getting pregnant or becoming

mothers are commonplace. They are often impregnated by men who are much older,

lured into intimacy by offers of food or allowance for school. Here, "Angel", a 13 year old

girl struggles to survive, sleeping on bike carts parked on a trash-laden road while

heavily pregnant at 7 months from her 17 year old boyfriend whom she calls "asawa" or

husband. They live as husband and wife, but without a home and only picking trash for

a living, their future and that of their unborn child remain uncertain.

Her friend “Andrea”, also 13 years old, is now living with her boyfriend‟s family in

a shanty in Happyland. She got impregnated at 12 but she lost her baby on her 7th

month of pregnancy. “Andrea” says she has nowhere to go, her mother has no home

and her father is in prison. Although her living conditions are far from comfortable, she

says at least with her 22 year-old boyfriend, she is fed three times a day. Asked what

she misses the most about being a child, she answers, “I miss playing”.

Meanwhile, in Fabella Hospital, the busiest maternity hospital in the world, 15

year old “Ann” gives birth to a baby girl. Doctors here say, they perform more than a

thousand deliveries on adolescent girls like her every year. Witnessing childbirth is

difficult, more so if the mother is not more than a child herself. But “Ann” seems to be

destined to become a teenage mother as this is her second pregnancy, the first one

ending in a miscarriage.

Foreign Studies

In Ecuador about 2,080 out of the total 346,700 females of ages 10 to 14 years in

2010 had already experienced motherhood (INEC, 2010). Beyond improving adolescent
and young people lives, investing in adolescent sexual and reproductive health will

contribute to broader development goals in the future. According to UNICEF, WHO and

UNFPA „„Pregnancy and childbirth-related deaths are the number one killers of 15 - 19

year old girls worldwide. Each year, nearly 70,000 die. At least 2 million more are left

with chronic illness or disabilities that may bring them life-long suffering, shame, and

abandonment.

Consequently, UNFPA has decided to assign World Population Day 2013 teen

pregnancy as a global priority. It emphasizes the importance of promoting actions

towards teen pregnancy prevention with the objective of giving adolescents and young

people enough opportunities and capabilities to replicate the patterns in their future

lives. It was only one decade and a half ago that adolescents were brought into the

national agendas and the focus was placed on the importance of promoting actions with

adolescents. By emphasizing on their sexual and reproductive rights, some of the root

causes for pregnancy will break at this age group such as poverty, gender disparities,

violence and lack of education. It was in 1994 in the International Conference of

Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo that 179 countries embraced the concept

and practice of sexual and reproductive rights as a necessary factor for poverty

reduction as well as for the reduction of high fertility and mortality rate and HIV and

AIDS prevalence (McIntosh and Finkle, 1995).

Many efforts have been made in the world after ICPD but including sexual and

reproductive rights in the political agendas is not enough. There have to be an

ensemble of elements that must be joint together in a set of policies and actions as well

as education and information. Furthermore, good quality of sexual and reproductive

health services must be available in order for adolescents to take risk-free choices and

healthy decisions when related to their sexual life.

Adolescence marks an important phase in human beings development. During

this stage, all the physical, physiological and emotional changes are happening, as well

as the sexual interests and arousal emerge as the body also faces its most drastic

changes. It is consider a moment where adolescents are building their personalities and

their new gendered sexual relationships with others (Dixon-Muller, 2007).

Consequently, as adolescents are going through a process of transformation, they face

various risks as well. First, because their reproductive and immune systems are

biologically immature and therefore more vulnerable for STIs3 and HIV transmission; in

case a pregnancy happens, their bodies are exposed to more problems than adult

women. Moreover, there are social factors such as relations of power that can influence

girls and adolescents to become sexually active without knowing the risks or even

become victims of sexual abuse or submission.

Early marriage and teenage pregnancy are the two most common causes for

adolescents‟ school dropout in Ecuador. Women who have not finished their education

have less opportunities of future labour and less income compared to educated women.

This analysis has focused on 2 key socio-cultural elements that affect teenage

pregnancy as a development problematic: education and gender structures. The lack or

inequities related to these 2 aspects increments the probabilities of an unwanted or

mistimed pregnancy in early ages during adolescence. Becoming mothers when

adolescents per se is not an unsolved problem, but could be when becoming an

adolescent mother would limit the mother of accessing a quality education and health

services consequence of discrimination and stigma due early motherhood.

Having access to an appropriate education will give girls and adolescent‟s not

only the freedom to choose and take decisions based on their rights, but make

pregnancy a conscious decisions which will inevitable have an impact over their future

plans. These decisions should be based on relevant information and accessibility and

good quality of educative and health services, but overall to equity in all the

environments they will interact in a near future taking conscious and free decisions over

their bodies and minds.

Theoretical Framework

Erik Erikson‟s Psycho-social development theory focuses on how children

socialize and how this affects their sense of self. He believes that the process of

developing an identity begins with the infant‟s discovery of self, continues through-out

childhood, and becomes the focus of adolescence (Amico, Dima, & Schweitzer, 2013).

The fifth stage on his Psycho-social development theory is Identity vs. Role Confusion

and it occurs as we enter 12 or 13 years old until we reach 18 or 19 years of age.

Erikson used the term “ego-identity” in his theory to refer to self-identity with the

belief that the ego is responsible for this process in a person‟s life. Galvez et. al. (2012)

quoted on their book that Erikson‟s theory states that a person undergoes a series of

steps that lead to identity formation through-out his or her life. A person‟s identity

becomes more and more evident during the time that he is at threshold to adulthood. It
is also vital for a person to eventually establish an identity in order to get over the phase

of identity confusion (Ortiz, 2012).

Conceptual Framework

This was designed to give the readers a brief idea on how this study works

through various processes. Further, this framework helps the readers to know the

variables that may influence or affect another variable in this study. The researchers

attempt to find out the effects of early pregnancy on the well-being of adolescents and

to know if there is a significant relationship between the two.

INDEPENDENT INTERVIENING DEPENDENT

VARIABLE VARIABLE VARIABLE

- Age
Well Being of
Early Pregnancy -Educational Attainment
Adolescents
-Socio-economic status

Respondent's -Interview Effects on the Well-Being

Demographic Profile -Survey Questionnaire of Adolescents

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

Early pregnancy has a lot of effects on an individual’s well-being and there is

significant relationship between the two

FEEDBACK