Somali Culture and Teenage Pregnancy

I believe that everything happens the way people choose. I am saying this because people are not the same; we have different cultures and beliefs. For example, the culture and traditions in Somalia and in the United States are totally different. This is really true when we look at teenage pregnancy.

Why? Because in Somali culture, if a girl of age 15 gets married, it’s normal and it has nothing to do with their religion although the religion allows them to arrange marry when the girl has her first menstrual period. Furthermore, once the girl gets married, she is already planning to have a child, again and again. This means that in the Somali tradition or culture, they don’t use birth control or anything like that. So if a young teenage womens gets married, it is positive that she is going to have a baby. This still exists in the Somali community both overseas in Somalia and here in the United States.

The big difference is that in the United States you have to be in school until the age of 18, but in Somalia it doesn’t matter if a young women is in school or not. Her marriage will be planned if a man comes for her and this still exists in the Somali community as I mentioned before. What these people need to understand, however, is that with the challenges of the new life or the new country things can change and it’s not a must to follow some old traditional ways that will affect your future.

In our school, we have eight married Somali teen girls. Three of them have babies. One of the three quit school and one of the five others is now pregnant. Soon she will have the baby; something we might also expect from the other four as long as they are not using birth control.

In fact, what most teen mothers don’t understand is that they can face medical problems such as low weight gain and anemia with pregnancy, as well as hypertension and cephalopelvic disproportion. Teen mothers are also less likely to seek prenatal care, and later in life are at greater risk for obesity and hypertension than older mothers. In addition to this, teen mothers have a lot to worry about. For example, there is school work and missing classes because the baby might have an appointment. Young mothers have to take care of their baby if he or she gets sick. There are many things that teen mothers have to handle if they can or it won’t work for them.

Me, personally, what I have learned from my friends that have the babies already is that they are in very difficult situations in terms of taking care of a child and going to school at the same time. It’s something I wouldn’t even try.

Finally, here is my advice to all teen mothers: if you have a baby and it’s hard for you to do both school work and the house work, get help from the Pima Health Department. It’s not too early to call for information. There are classes to take, called parenting classes.