One in three mothers or pregnant minors became pregnant around the age of 15. 58% of Romanian ethnicity, 40% of Roma ethnicity, 2% of Hungarian ethnicity

One in three girls who are currently mothers or underage pregnant, among a sizeable group who took part in a Save the Children study, became pregnant for the first time around the age of 15 or even younger. The same study, presented on Thursday by the cited organization, shows that, at the European level, the situation of births among teenage girls in Romania is surpassed, in gravity, only by that recorded in Bulgaria and Georgia.

• The study was carried out at national level, on a sample of 200 young teenage girls, both mothers and pregnant girls, coming from 172 localities. According to a Save the Children statement, among the participating underage pregnant women, 80% declared they were 16-17 years old. In two situations, the pregnant girls had just turned 14 at the time of the study.
• The majority of respondents (58%) declare themselves to be of Romanian ethnicity; 40% of respondents declared Roma ethnicity and 2% Hungarian ethnicity.

According to the analysis, dropping out of school plays a key role in birth rates among underage mothers, more than poverty, and less than 2 in 5 pregnant underage women continue school. Save the Children:

• “Two-thirds of all pregnant minors or mothers who are not currently in any form of education dropped out of school before becoming pregnant, with school dropout being the explanatory variable with the highest contribution to underage births (more important than poverty , community or family cultural model, residential environment or ethnicity).
• Only 39% of underage pregnant women and 24% of underage mothers continue school, most of them during the day, which shows the opportunity for communication through the school counselor or the director.”

In this context, Save the Children says that, from an educational point of view, it is necessary to support pregnant women and underage mothers, for example through online distance learning, “which does not require travel except on the occasion of taking annual graduation exams and which to enable girls to complete compulsory education”.

The mentioned research shows that one in six pregnant girls did not visit their family doctor or gynecologist during their pregnancy. And in terms of life context, more than a third got pregnant around the age of 15 or younger, and the difference between them and their partner was at least 5 years. At the same time, one out of three study participants has a mother who, in turn, gave birth to her first child before turning 18.

According to Save the Children, “Romania registers 34 births per 1,000 teenage girls; in Europe, only two states present a relatively worse situation: Bulgaria and Georgia, with values ​​of 36.8 and 38.3 births, respectively”.

The situation at EU level:

• “Almost half (45%) of births to girls under the age of 15 in the EU come from Romania – in the last five years (2018 – 2022), Romania recorded 40,916 births to mothers under the age of 18, of which 3,696 were at mothers who had not yet turned 15”.

The dynamics of births from underage mothers, for the last five years (Eurostat data), according to Salvați Copiii:

• 2018: 8,621 births to mothers under the age of 18, of which 725 to mothers who have not yet turned 15;
• 2019: 8,457 births to mothers under 18, 749 to mothers under 15;
• 2020: 8,276 births to mothers under 18, 731 to mothers under 15;
• 2021: 8,024 births to mothers under 18, 745 to mothers under 15;
• 2022: 7,538 births to mothers under 18, 746 to mothers under 15.