By Malik Jjingo
According to a recent Maries Stopes report, the South Central region, which includes the districts of Masaka, Lyantonde, and Sembabule among others, is still struggling with a high mortality rate and a high number of teenage pregnancies.
According to Martin Sseruyange, the biostatistician for Masaka City, who presented the Marie Stopes report, there is an urgent need to raise community awareness of the significance of embracing modern contraceptive measures in order to address this situation.
In a survey was carried out in more than seven regions, encompassing more than eighty districts in Western, West Nile, North Central, South Central, Eastern, and East Central areas where the programme was implemented in the previous five years.
Over a number of years, the results indicate that Ssembabule is leading the region with 19%, up from 17% five years prior to the implementation of the Rise programme in the region. Masaka district comes in second with 18%, up from 17%, and Lyantonde follows with 17% from 16%, while Bukomansimbi trails behind at 18% among other districts.
The report did, however, demonstrate that the Rise Programme had a significant positive impact in certain localities, such as Kalangala, where the rate of adolescent pregnancies had dropped from 18% to 10% in the previous five years. In Kyotera it dropped from (20%) to (16%), Mpigi (18% to 14%), Lwengo (19% to 16%), and Wakiso (12%) to 10%.
The researchers found that the 5-year Rise programme identified a number of issues that continue to impede the uptake of family planning methods. Among other things, the programme designed various initiatives to attract these modalities and has been successful in bringing services closer to people in over 86 districts across 7 regions where it was implemented.
“There are districts that have exhibited a stagnation in the number of teenage pregnancies due to a number of social cultural factors, economic factors the impact of Covid 19 that affected the entire nation but still there are those that have shown an improvement due to the efforts employed by the stake holders empowered by the program,” said Sseruyange who presented the report from Marie stopes.
The results do, however, place certain North Central districts—such as Buvuma and Kiboga—with high prevalence rates since the percentage of teenage pregnancies has sharply increased from 20% to 22% and from 14% to 17%, respectively. On the other hand, Mukono was crucial in bringing about the reduction of teenage moms from 19% to 15% in Luweero, from 20% to 15% in Kyankwanzi, and from 23% to 20% in Kayunga, among other places.
Margret Nannozi, Assistant District Health Officer in charge of Maternal and Child Health (ADHO) in the Mpigi District, called for ongoing participation from all stakeholders at all levels. She stated that the fight against teenage pregnancies is a national effort and that the public must take action. She further stated that teenage mothers account for a specific portion of these high death rates.
We have included other district departments in our efforts to raise awareness about teenage pregnancies, and some leaders have begun to express gratitude for our efforts to reduce the number. “We are engaging school administrators and district councillors to always convey messages against teenage pregnancies and we have brought on board the health department but it is no longer only for the health department but for every stakeholder at all district levels,” she said.
Jane Namukasa, the ADHO for Maternal and Child Health in Kalangala district, outlined how the district collaborates with Heroes for Gender Transformative Action to provide counselling services to teenagers and young adults. This initiative raises awareness among the district’s youth population about the availability of various family planning options and other preventive measures, which, according to Namukasa, has assisted in lowering the number of teenage pregnancies in the district.
The Rise Programme began in 2019 and by April 2024, it had served over 2.3 million clients, with 19% of those clients being young people under the age of 20. The programme had a significant impact on adolescents, particularly those who were impoverished, disabled, or lived in difficult-to-reach areas.
To reduce mortality rates and adolescent pregnancies among young people in the nation, Dr. Kasendwa Patrick, the Masaka City Health Officer, urged the government to support greater use of family planning methods.
“There is a need to raise awareness among the general public about the value of manageable families. This can be achieved by promoting greater use of the family planning options that have been shown to be successful. This can also help address the issue of teenagers who are still dying during childbirth due to the various complications they face during pregnancy and labour,” he said.
