Country’s fertility down, teenage pregnancies rise: Expert

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Teenage pregnancies in Sri Lanka have increased from 14 to 1,000 pregnancies to 21 out of a 1,000 in the last decade, Dr Vindya Kumarapeli, Director – Policy Analysis and Development at the Ministry of Health says.

She said that while the overall fertility of Sri Lankan women has dropped, there are geographical areas where the total fertility rate (TFR) is higher than the average and there was a significant number of teenage pregnancies.

Preventing adolescent pregnancy and childbearing as well as child marriage was part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda with dedicated indicators, including indicator 3.7.2, she said. “Adolescent birth rate (aged 10–14 years; aged 15–19 years) per 1000 women in that age group,” and 5.3.1, “Proportion of women aged 20–24 years married before the age of 18 years.”

Dr. Kumarapeli said that looking after the health of teenage mothers was important and the fact that there were many such individuals indicated that awareness of reproductive health had not reached everyone, she said.

On the other hand, fostering health among the elderly was a significant challenge Sri Lanka faced, Dr. Kumarapeli said, noting that Sri Lanka had an aging population and improving the health of the elderly would reduce the burden on the healthcare system.

“Health is not only the responsibility of the health ministry. Many aspects of non-communicable diseases, and social and welfare development depends on how healthy our elderly population is,” she said.

Adolescent pregnancy was a global phenomenon with clearly known causes and serious health, social and economic consequences. Globally, the adolescent birth rate (ABR) has decreased, but rates of change have been uneven across regions.