NGO: 45% of mothers under 15 in EU come from Romania

About half of mothers under 15 in EU (45%) come from Romania, where one out of ten newborns has an underage mother, according to a study of the Save the Children Organization published on Thursday.   The study, called “The situation of underage mothers and pregnant girls in Romania”, was made over October-December 2023, as part of the project “An integrated model to ensure access to medical and social services for pregnant teenagers and mothers in less favored rural areas,”financed by MSD for Mothers. 200 teenage pregnant girls, and mothers from 172 localities participated.   “One out of three girls who are now underage mothers/pregnant girls became pregnant for the first time around the age of 15 years or less, according to data of a study made by Save the Children Romanka. In 2022 alone, 746 births were recorded for girls aged between 10 and 14 and 1,286 births of 15 year-old girls. Although Romania recorded only 4.59% of births in EU, 28.14% of births were by mothers under 18 and 44.17% by mothers under 15.   Pregnancies among underage girls is a phenomenon frequently associated with high infant death rate, according to a Health Ministry report for 2022. 46% of underage mothers declared they did not keep in touch with the baby's father,” the study shows.   The document also shows that one out of three minor pregnant girls have mothers who, in their turn, gave borth to their first baby while being underage. One out of five girls who got pregnant before the age of 18 was born by an underage mother in her turn.   Underage mothers/pregnant girls come mostly from families whose incomes are below the level of acute poverty.   According to the study, two thirds of all underage pregnant girls abandoned school before getting pregnant, “leaving school being the main reason for their situation, more important than poverty, community or family cultural model, residence environment or ethnic group.”   One out of six minor pregnant girls were not seen by either family doctor of gynecologist during their pregnancy to monitor the child's evolution, shame and lack of money being the main reasons why minor girls do not visit a gynecologist.   “There is a difficult situation in Romania about the high number of underage mothers, which remains roughly at the same level every year, although the birth rate has dropped a lot in Romania. Children with children are at the same level, with a slight growing tendency. Unfortunately, in EU, Romania has the highest number of girls under 15 years of age who become mothers. Over 2018-2022, there were about 3,700 girls in that situation and 41,000 teenage girls became mothers. The profile of minor mothers is: girls with an average age of 15, living in a family with a very low socioeconomic status, have sexual relations with men at least 5 years older than they are, come from families where parental support is reduced,” said Gabriela Alexandrescu, executive president of “Save the Children Romania” organization.   To reduce the number of underage mothers she pleaded for the gradual introduction of “Education for health” in schools, a discipline offering children information about reproductive health, healthy nutrition, the importance of practicing sports, emotional health, fighting drug abuse.   Adrian Streinu-Cercel, the president of the Health Commission in Senate, declared he would do the utmost to introduce this discipline in the school curriculum as of 2024-2025 school year.