A new study says unintended births areon the rise among young Nigerian women. What'smore, early marriage and early motherhood remain common.
Thefindings are reported by the US-based Guttmacher Institute and the Women'sHealth and Action Research Center in Benin City. They say despite large improvements in youngwomen's education between 1990 and 2003, there have not been major gains insexual and reproductive health awareness.
AkinrinolaBankole, director of international research at the Guttmacher Institute, is aco-author of the study. From New York,he describes the findings of the study as a mixed bag.
"It'sencouraging in the sense that young people are becoming more educated thanbefore?. And also we see some increase in contraceptive use, which means theyare making an effort to protect themselves against unintended pregnancy andSDI, including HIV," he says.
"Theyare not doing that as successfully as they should, given the fact that many ofthem are becoming pregnant and having children when they actually did not wantto," he says.
Thereare some indications as to why this is happening.
Bankolesays, "One is that young people lack the kind of information they need. For instance? between the years 1990 and2003?the proportion of young people that know where to obtain contraceptivemethods has declined from 31 percent to 18 percent. That is a dangerous trend."
Whatabout government efforts to promote sexual and reproductive health?
"Ibelieve that there is what is called family life education in some of thestates. But the extent to which this istaught is not very clear," he says.
Thestudy says, "Government policies to promote sexual and reproductive healthinformation?for young Nigerians exist on paper but have not been successfullyimplemented."
Bankolesays, "Secondly, we believe that there is a need for better sex education inschools in order to inform young people about how to adequately protectthemselves."
"If we do not curb the trend ofincreasing unintended births?and pregnancy, then we might find a situationwhere young people drop out of school?. We might find their life ambitions are being cut short," he says.
He says while it would require a majorgovernment investment of funds to prevent these problems, it would still becheaper than dealing with them once they occur.