Pregnancy In South Africa

In this essay I will discuss and further elaborate on the reasons why teenage pregnancy is such a problematic issue within South African communities especially amongst African groups. More specifically I will be raising key topics such sexuality amongst Africans teens, the set of environment or community they grow up in, and the types of relationships teenage males and females form and as to why such relationships prove to be a key factor in why teenage pregnancy has such a high prevalence, within those given societies.

It creates a new imperative to understand pregnancy and the high risk sexual activity of which it is a consequence. In South Africa the teenage years are characterised by socially allowed freedom and sexual experimentation for

Other factors' such as bridal price that accompanies higher educational status is a motivating factor for parental support in this regard. Various other data sources show that young women who have never repeated a grade or left school temporarily before and live with an adult female are more likely to return to school. Teenage mothers who receive support from their mother have a probability to return and remain in school (Jewkes, Morrell and Christofides. (2013)). Young women who live with older females tend to shed maternal duties to their relatives and resume their school career, however if the woman marries and moves to her husband’s household may, however have increased domestic responsibilities and there may be less support for their continued education. It should note however, that school engagement and attendance play a vital role in preventing teen pregnancy. Further statistics show that greater proportion of girls who left school has an increase pregnancy and HIV infection with 17-18 year-olds. While a number of pregnancies amongst young women are unplanned and not all unplanned pregnancies are unwanted, more young women find their pregnancies problematic than do women in their middle reproductive years.

From cultural perspective the value of fertility is if great importance amongst woman. In fact women of all ages within most South African societies experience pressure to have children. Women are often labelled as barren ad if they do not conceive as pregnancy is understood as the epitome of womanhood. Furthermore pregnancy is valued by young African women for the meaning it imparts to relationships. In context of multiple relationships, an acknowledged pregnancy may strengthen bonds between