LESSONS FOR TEEN MUMS
Robot babies tackling teenage pregnancies in Colombia
“ANTHONY” cried so hard at night that Susana Ortegon couldn’t sleep. The weekend felt like an eternity for the 13-year-old.
So, when she returned her “robot baby”, it was with great relief. She had taken part in a programme launched by the Caldas municipality in Colombia to tackle the problem of teen pregnancies.
“This experience was pretty tough, it’s not easy being a mummy or a daddy,” said Ortegon.
The baby’s cries were loud that they even bothered her parents.
“It’s awful! Awful! On top of that, the baby never stops crying and you’ve got to look after it all the time,” she added.
The baby, a rubber doll with built-in software, cries when it wants to be fed, have a diaper changed or simply needs cuddling.
It’s a voluntary programme launched in schools by the Caldas municipality, just outside Medellin, in a bid to reduce the high level of teenage pregnancies
in the town of 78,000.
“With this strategy, we managed to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies significantly,” said Juan Carlos Sanchez, the local authority’s health secretary.
When the programme began in 2017, the municipality registered 168 pregnancies of girls aged 13 to19, which was down to 141 last year, Sanchez said.
The robot babies are programmed to behave according to a specific age. Ortegon’s was designed to mimic the behaviour of a 2-month-old, which meant it needed care every hour.
“It’s like having a real baby. Last night, I got so desperate, I started crying,” said Ortegon.
At first she called her baby “Tony Stark” after the lead character in Iron Man, but she later realised the exercise was serious and changed his name.
It’s not just teenage girls taking part in the project.
Miguel Angel Suarez spent his entire weekend at home looking after “Sofia” while his friends played football.
“Pregnancies are not just the responsibility of women,” said the 17-year-old, just seconds before Sofia started to cry.
“This teaches us a lesson.”
The exercise seems to be working. “No way am I thinking about having one at this age,” said Suarez, who wants to wait until he has a job so his children can have “a dignified life”.