Beyond love: a qualitative analysis of factors associated with teenage pregnancy among young women with pregnancy experience in Bolgatanga, Ghana.

Globally, an estimated 16 million young women aged 15 to 19 years give birth every year. Most teenage pregnancies are unintended and being pregnant or delivering a baby as a teenager can have serious adverse consequences. Knowledge of the environmental factors and social cognitive determinants influencing young women's failure to protect against unintended pregnancy is necessary to address the high rate of teenage pregnancies. We conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 21 young women, who had experience of pregnancy, in Bolgatanga, Ghana. The interview protocol included themes (relationships, sex, pregnancy, family planning) and determinants (knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, norms, risk perceptions) derived from empirical studies and theories related to sexuality behaviour. Findings show that young women's motivations for sexual relationships are mostly 'beyond love' and seem to focus on economic factors. The main means of sexual protection seems to be condom use. Other forms of contraception were believed to be linked to infertility. Sexuality remains a largely taboo topic for open discussion and sex education in schools seems limited to abstinence-only messages. The need for more open communication on matters of sexuality with young people and the provision of a more comprehensive sexuality education in school to address teenage pregnancies in Ghana, is discussed.

Knowledge, attitude and practices study on reproductive health among secondary school students in Bolgatanga, upper east region, Ghana.

This study was conducted within the secondary school student population of the Bolgatanga community, in Northern Ghana, to learn about knowledge, attitude and practices of reproductive health of this adolescent student population. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected on adolescence perception, STIs and HIV/AIDS, family planning, male-female relationship, and vulnerability to sexual violence. The data collected show a concerning low familiarity of the student population with family planning methods and HIV/AIDS transmission, which, combined with minimal contraceptive use, pose them at high risk for unwanted pregnancies and sexual infections transmission. We argue that poor infrastructures and low accessibility of these rural areas in Northern Ghana may have led to uneven distribution of reproductive health educational programs in the country, urging more programs and interventions aimed particularly at these high risk groups.