As a child the fantasies of being an adult engulf ones thoughts and actions all the time. This however makes the transition of childhood to adulthood via teenage hood a rather exciting hormone filled journey. Teen hood as many know is time for being both childish and mature, a time for being silly and wise, a time for making good decisions and bad decisions. There is a lot of socialising, partying, relationships with the opposite sex, heartbreaks etc etc. However noticeably the girl child suffers the most discrimination during this period. Being in Africa were culture and tradition is a basis for decision making and the foundations for societal judgement, teen pregnancy is greatly a cause for concern. Despite the fact that different cultures and traditions in Africa encourage teen marriage which greatly contributes to high rise in teen pregnancy, there are a lot of issues that surround this situation.
On the other hand being pregnant is the happiest period of any woman’s life, the greatest joy ever. However being teen and being pregnant is a lot more confusing than it actually sounds. I personally know how it is like to want to be a teen without being under the watchful eye of society and its criticisms’. It is when you find out you are pregnant that the reality of life starts shaping right infront of you. Even though it takes a while to actually start feeling pregnant even though you are pregnant it aint easy to actually go through with pregnancy without facing emotional, social, physical, spiritual challenges challenges. Being pregnant during teenage hood pulls you away from you social circles, it takes away the youngness in you and whether you like it or not you just have to grow up and take up a lot more responsibilities than you can otherwise handle. Being pregnant as a teenager, you are pulled away from yourself in a way that nobody can really understand. Society doesn’t make it any better and at this time and you begin to realise who truly has your back. Nomatter how rich or poor you are, early parenthood isn’t easy as it seperates the strong from the weak, the confident from the non-confident, the mature from immature. The most difficult is maintaining a relationship with the father of the child. Girls have a lot more to deal with during this period and so they tend to make a lot of decisions regarding their pregnancies, their upkeep and the upkeep of the child. All this while the fathers tend to take a while longer to figure all out. Such is life and there is no formulae for making such a situation more acceptable or more easier