News
Thursday, July 11, 2013THE National Family Planning Board (NFPB) is urging parents and guardians to educate their children about safe sexual and reproductive health (SRH) practices, in an effort to effectively tackle adolescent pregnancy.The advice comes as Jamaica joins the rest of the world in observing today World Population Day 2013 under the theme: ‘Adolescent Pregnancy.’The observance will focus on re-integrating school-aged mothers into the formal education system will form part of a continuous effort to provide age appropriate sexual and reproductive health information and services to adolescents and young people, in order to help them make informed decisions.Accorind to the NFPB, the more educated people are about their reproductive health, the better prepared they are to make wise choices.“We want young people to be able to achieve their full potential,” says Racquel Reece, communications officer/writer at the NFPB.Reece says ill-timed pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections can have a detrimental impact on the ability of adolescents to achieve their goals.She says the NFPB is especially concerned about adolescents, as maternal mortality rates are usually higher in that age group. This is because adolescents are less likely to make use of antenatal health care services, and are more likely to suffer from complications during labour.They are also more likely to have premature babies and children with low birth weight, and are at risk of educational failure, and emotional disturbances.
View the original article here
Parents urged to teach children about safe sexual, reproductive health
