CONTRACEPTIVE USE
Depo-Provera is a contraceptive injection for women that contains the hormone progestin, and while in Kenya it has traditionally been associated with married women who want to space their children or prevent conception altogether, here in sleepy Waa a girl who is barely in her teens is about to get the shot.
Depo-Provera is a contraceptive injection for women that contains the hormone progestin, and while in Kenya it has traditionally been associated with married women who want to space their children or prevent conception altogether, here in sleepy Waa a girl who is barely in her teens is about to get the shot.
“I know it is a decision some people would frown over,” explains the girl’s mother, “but look at me; I am a grandmother at 34 years!”
The 2014 Kenya Demographic Health Survey shows that half of women in Kenya aged between 20 and 49 had their first sexual intercourse by the time they turned 18, and that one in 10 women of the same group had their sexual debut by 15.
One in four Kenyan women aged between 25 and 49 have given birth by age 18, while one in two have given birth by 20.
Health workers say teenagers, some as young as 13, are now on various family planning options, and this surge may be driven by the high number of teenage pregnancies as a bigger portion opts to use contraceptives after getting their first child.
“In every facility in Lunga Lunga Sub-County, there are mothers who are under the age of 19 years seeking antenatal care services,” says Ms Lele Hassan Matano, the local public health nurse.
The use of contraceptives by adolescents is a sensitive issue in a country with strong religious inclinations, and although government policy is to ensure availability of such services for men and women who are ready for, and need, them, the society is yet to wrap its collective head around the reality of teens on pills.
“We have informed our health care workers that, for family planning to be successful, the entry point is the sexual activity of an individual. So when a teenager comes for the services, the health worker should not deny them contraceptives,” Ms Matano says.
Her views are supported by Mr David Baya, the Kwale County health promotion officer, who says parents need to realise that the sexual activities of their children, while predisposing them to infections, also expose them to unwanted pregnancies.
Ms Ali, a resident of Kwale, put her twin daughters on contraceptives when they were in Standard Seven.
“I had to have a plan so that they do not get pregnant again easily. How do I take care of them and their children at the same time?” she asks.
“It is better to prevent at least one thing — in this case pregnancy — than them come here with both infections and pregnancies.”
