School one minute, breastfeeding the next
New Zealand’s teen birth rate is relatively high among wealthy countries. Cate Broughton talks to teen mums about their challenges.
Tapita Setu’s 1-year-old daughter has changed her life for the better. But ask the 18-year-old what advice she would give her 16-year-old self?
‘‘Get contraception. Take the information seriously.’’
Setu was 17 and settling into the first term of year 12 when she became pregnant. Access to contraception and Family Planning referrals were available at school, but Setu did not take advantage of them. She and boyfriend Jacob Graham, 18, faced deciding whether to go ahead with parenthood – or not.
‘‘I wasn’t against abortion [and] we were both still at school, but I never saw myself being able to get an abortion.’’
Telling her parents was traumatic, she said.
She told them she would keep the baby with or without their support.
‘‘It was quite scary because my parents are Samoan and pretty strict.
‘‘I thought they would be annoyed, especially because me and Jacob had only been together for a year.’’
While there were tears and regret, Setu said her parents embraced Shayla and see her as a blessing.
Before becoming pregnant Setu used drugs and alcohol to cope with a friend’s suicide.
‘‘Having Shayla was a big eyeopener... as soon as I had Shayla I knew she was going to change my life.’’
Graham got a job as a tradesmen’s assistant mid-last year. Setu recently started working full time at Ngai Tahu Seafoods.
Both regretted not finishing high school. That might happen again in future, but Shayla was a higher priority now. ‘‘I feel proud to be her mum.’’
Teenage pregnancies have declined significantly in New Zealand and other developed countries over the past decade.
However, New Zealand’s teen birth rate is relatively high among wealthy countries and ranks second only to the United States.
In 2016, the birth rate among 15 to 18-year-old women was 16 per 1000.
In Australia it was 11 per 1000 and in the US it was 20.3 per 1000.
Studies show young mothers often have complex health needs, but can find it hard to access services they need.
A Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) study of 158 teen mothers in 2016 found they were more likely to have: – received support from a social worker – had mental or behavioural disorders – presented to Emergency Department for assault, poisoning or self-harm
– had a history of smoking
– had two or more pregnancies
Babies of young mothers were more likely to be hospitalised, exposed to tobacco smoke, have a social worker intervene and need specialist/neonatal intensive care.
Maternity and parenting services did not always accommodate teen parents, the study found.
In focus groups, young mothers said they did not go to ante-natal classes. That sex and reproductive health education in schools was inconsistent or lacking. That they did not always know how to access health services and information.
Family Planning New Zealand national medical adviser Dr Christine Roke said young women were often in shock and denial when they discovered they were pregnant.
Concerns about the cost seeing a doctor, difficulty getting out of school to attend an appointment, and fear their parents would find out could stop them seeking contraception, a pregnancy test or abortion information, Roke said.
Kimihia College for Young Parents in Christchurch allows young mothers to continue their schooling and complete their NCEA. It has an adjoining early learning centre.
Katlyn Mclauchlan, 19, said the message she got at her Catholic school was ‘‘don’t have sex’’. Safe sex was not promoted.
‘‘The stuff they would say was mostly based around STIs (sexually transmitted infections) and ‘if you have sex you will catch it’.’’
Ella Chadderton, 18, had a Family Planning appointment booked two days after she got pregnant. She missed it because of illness.
Having an abortion ‘‘never went through my mind’’, though she felt under pressure from some family members to do so.
‘‘It kind of annoys me how everybody makes out it’s the girls’ responsibility to make sure guys wear condoms.
‘‘I feel like a baby comes in to the world for a reason and you get pregnant for a reason.’’
Chadderton had no regrets, but motherhood was ‘‘definitely trying sometimes’’.
Sex education is part of the Ministry of Education’s curriculum and an updated guide in 2015 included discussion of contraception, but it is up to schools how to deliver it.
Chadderton said it should discuss teen pregnancy more.
‘‘We need to be more honest with young girls as to how difficult being a mum can be . . . because not everybody is lucky enough to have a good support system around them and it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
‘‘Being a mum is amazing, but it’s hard.’’
Lara Maumau was 16 years old, at school and playing rugby when she learned she was 32 weeks pregnant.
Her mother noticed a line running down her stomach and booked a GP appointment. A scan revealed Maumau’s baby was due in two months.
‘‘I was sitting there going ‘what the f...’ . . . I’ve been playing [rugby] the whole year,’’ the now 18-year-old said.
‘‘My mum was crying and I was crying.’’
Ricki Fryer, 19, had son, Kruze, when she was 16.
She said the birth was difficult, there were complications and he went into the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The lack of post-birth support upset her.
‘‘Not even six hours later they were trying to kick me out of the hospital. I still couldn’t feel my legs.
‘‘I wanted to go to sleep, they were trying to kick me out, Kruze was still in the NICU and they wouldn’t take me up there to see him before I left.’’
Fryer said she did not regret having Kruze, but wished the circumstances were different, with a supportive partner involved.
‘‘I live on my own, I’m a single parent and it is so, so hard . . .
‘‘I honestly have a mental breakdown weekly.
‘‘If I had been a bit more mature and understood not all guys are going to stay, then that probably would have been better.’’
Abortion Law Reform Association president Terry Bellamak said comprehensive sex education, which included information about contraception and abortion – and where to access them – helped prevent teen pregnancies.
Students needed to know about abortion laws and how they would could get an abortion if they needed to – because it was not ‘‘remotely straight forward’’, Bellamak said.
Young people needed to attend three appointments, starting with a GP or family planning clinic referral to an abortion centre.
Two more appointments on separate days were needed before the abortion went ahead.
Bellamak said having a baby or an abortion was for the young woman to decide.
‘‘This is what pro-choice means, the person carrying the pregnancy gets to choose what they want to do.
‘‘There is no entity on God’s great Earth that has a better right to make that decision.’’