A step towards helping mothers with unwanted pregnancies
Chhabra, S.
Indian Journal of Maternal and Child Health Official Publication of Indian Maternal and Child Health Association 3(2): 41-42
1992
ISSN/ISBN: 0970-8928 PMID: 12288486 Document Number: 575843
Changing attitudes towards sex and reproduction are evidenced by the desire to understand their physiological, behavioral, and social aspects. Illicit relationships are condemned, at the same time adolescents get sexual messages from television, movies, and books. In India high moral codes consider adolescent sexuality and the resultant motherhood a disgrace. 100 unwed mainly rural girls who came for medical termination of pregnancy to the Mahatma Gandhi Institution of Medical Sciences Sevagram were interviewed. 88% of the girls did not know the consequences of having sexual relations; 90% did not know anything about contraception and 66% had come in the second trimester. A prospective study of school girls about their knowledge of menstruation, reproductive physiology, and birth control methods showed that 75.1% of girls lacked that knowledge (87.6% of rural girls, as compared to 62.6% of urban girls). The knowledge sources were mainly literature and movies (77.93%). Some girls seek pregnancy termination when it is no longer possible; in these instances, the infant is often abandoned or killed. Health education and sex education are needed, and various welfare programs should reach impoverished and rural areas. Premarital sexual intimacy among unwed adolescents is widespread, although, in a traditional society, out-of-wedlock pregnancy carries a social stigma. But in spite of the social stigma attached to illegitimate pregnancies, unwed motherhood continues to be a problem. In an attempt to help girls who seek abortion at a stage beyond eligibility for termination, a program funded by foreign assistance cares for these girls until they deliver.