The gynecologist explained the increase in cases of pregnancy of schoolgirls: seducers in the family

The problem of underage pregnancy not only remains relevant for our country, but has recently been growing. So, in the Perm Territory, fresh statistics are amazing – over the past year, the number of pregnant girls increased by 19%! In other regions, there is also a surge. What is happening and why does the availability of information on contraceptives not affect the situation?

According to statistics, 70% of teenage pregnancies end in childbirth.

According to Rosstat, in 2018, four 12-year-old girls gave birth in our country, 34 girls became mothers at the age of 13, and 190 at the age of 14. Further upward: more than 900 became mothers at the age of 15 (of which 22 have already given birth for the second time!) and almost 3,000 at the age of 16. As for 17-year-olds, in 2019 in Russia there were four girls of this age who had already given birth to their fifth child.

Statistics on the number of births in Russia in 2020: under the age of 15, more than 5 thousand girls gave birth, which, it turns out, is already much more than at the same age in 2018.

And according to the most recent data of the Children’s Ombudsman in the Perm Territory, the total number of schoolgirls who became pregnant over the past year was 324 cases, of which 13 young mothers have not reached 14 years of age.

About the causes and ways to solve the problem of teenage pregnancy, “MK” talked with a doctor, obstetrician-gynecologist, expert in the field of reproductive health Lyubov Erofeeva.

“Of course, today’s youth is now more informed than previous generations, but awareness does not mean that they have the motivation and education to use this information competently,” says Lyubov Erofeeva. – Knowing about contraceptive methods and using it are two big differences. We don’t have a subject in high school that talks about unwanted pregnancy. I note that only we and Turkmenistan are “famous” for this state of affairs. Parents and children do not talk about this topic. They themselves have little information, and besides, they do not have the skills to present it to the child. This is not accepted in our culture.

Meanwhile, in regions and settlements where (for economic and social reasons) teenagers have nothing to do with themselves, they themselves come up with such leisure as sex. For them, this is the cheapest and most affordable form of leisure.

The second aspect of the problem is that we are very poorly informed about the legal consequences of such relationships among teenage boys. And girls in general about it, as a rule, do not know or do not think. Young men sometimes do not realize that they are facing serious deadlines, even if this happened by mutual agreement.

That is, adolescents should be informed, first, about the legal consequences and the age of consent, and second, about methods of reliable contraception. A subject like “Family Studies”, which should be at least optional in all schools, could help with this. This, in my opinion, could reduce the incidence of sexual violence and the number of unwanted pregnancies among girls.

– Do such cases occur more often in dysfunctional families?

– It’s not always the same. Of course, if a girl grows up in a family where her mother changes boyfriends, where the mother does not care what her daughter sees, and sometimes turns a blind eye to the fact that one of her boyfriends can take advantage of the child, this is a very terrible situation.

A particularly disturbing fact is that very often the seducer, an older man, is in the family of an underage girl. This may be an older relative, a friend of an older brother, or an older brother himself. This situation can last for years and not come to light due to threats from the molester, etc.

Girls should know that even under threats one cannot remain silent, one cannot follow the lead of those who commit such actions with them. It is imperative to tell trusted adults and relatives about this. So that they can take the hand to the gynecologist and forensic doctors. The girl should know that the gynecologist can perform emergency contraception to protect against pregnancy from a rapist, which no one needs.

At the same time, Lyubov Erofeeva stressed that compared to the end of the 90s, when every tenth unwanted pregnancy in our country was among minors, in the early 2000s these figures fell by half.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29058 dated June 28, 2023

Newspaper headline:
Time of pregnant schoolgirls