A residential student of the Oyoko Methodist Senior High School (OMESS) in Koforidua has reportedly attempted to dump her baby after she delivered in the school’s dormitory.
According to sources, some of her mates woke up to a baby’s cry on the dawn of Saturday, December 10, 2022, in the dormitory’s corridor.
Out of curiosity, they thronged to the scene only to discover the new mother attempting to dump the baby in a pit latrine on the campus.
They quickly alerted the Senior Housemistress, who rushed in to escort the mother and baby to the Eastern Regional Hospital.
Management of the school informed and invited the parents of the student to a meeting for a decision to be taken for the collective good of both mother and baby.
They have since been treated and discharged from the hospital.
The number of teenage pregnancies in the Eastern Region has sharply risen since schools closed for months due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
According to the Ghana Health Service, the region recorded 8,174 teenage pregnancies as of September 2021, up from 7,976 recorded within the same period in 2020.
Of the cases, 0.4 per cent represented girls aged 10 to 14, while 12.2 per cent represented ages 15 to 19.
The records show an increment of 0.2 per cent over the 2020 cases of teenage pregnancies, Dr Winfred Ofosu, the Eastern Regional Director of GHS, said.
He said the increment could be more associated with poverty and lack of parental control than the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A lot of parents from poor homes may not be able to control their girls very much because if the child needs something and you cannot provide, the child gets it elsewhere,” he said.
The inability of teenagers to negotiate their way out of sexual demands or advances from men or boys also remains a grave challenge.
Research reveals that teenage pregnancies carry extra health risks to both mother and baby, such as a higher risk for pregnancy-related high blood pressure, anaemia, preteen labour, and urinary tract infections.