/PNA
ILOILO CITY — The incidence of teenage pregnancy in Iloilo province has declined by 9.8 percent during the year 2017, according to the Provincial Population Office (PPO).
In an interview Friday, Ramon Yee, head of PPO, said there were 2,213 cases of teenage pregnancy recorded last year, lower than the 2,583 incidence recorded in 2016.
The youngest pregnancy recorded in 2017 was that of a 14 years old, Yee said.
As per guidelines from the Department of Health (DOH), the monitoring age for the adolescents starts from age 10 until 19 years old.
The data on the status of teenage pregnancy in the province were gathered from the field through the Barangay Service Point Officers deployed in the 1,721 villages in the 42 towns and one component city in the province.
Yee attributed the decline in the number of teenage pregnancies to the various symposiums conducted in all the 48 functional teen centers in the province. “This is an indicator that there is something good happening,” he said.
Yee added that the teen centers in the province have been conducting symposiums and other activities to encourage the teens to avoid early pregnancy or early sexual engagement. Also, they are discussing issues about avoiding smoking, use of illegal drugs, drinking alcohol, which Yee considered as among the factors that affect the life of a teenager.
Yee also noted another innovation in teen centers, which he dubbed “Doctor’s Hour”. It is an activity that allowed volunteer doctors to talk to teenagers in the centers to discuss primarily the early sexual engagement and its disadvantages.
“Hearing it and taking it from a professional brought big impact to the teens unlike us, in the population offices that we are just discussing facts about teenage pregnancy, encouraging them to avoid it. Doctors have in depth discussions with them like how prepared their reproductive system is to handle the risks of early pregnancy,” he said.
Although they do not have available data yet on the incidence of teenage pregnancy this year, Yee hoped the decline will continue.
