She runs her hand over her belly and doesn't notice the exact weight of her five-month pregnancy. Until recently, her world revolved around school, weekend outings with her classmates, WhatsApp conversations until dawn, fashionable clothes, and dreams of what her adult life would be like.
Niurka has now postponed her goals. She is only 16 years old and became pregnant during her first sexual encounter. She never imagined it would happen to her, but it did. The baby's father is another teenager whom she does not know well enough to share her life with. This September, she has felt an immense desire to be able to study as before, when her future depended only on her.
Teenage pregnancy continues to be a problem that strongly affects our society. Beyond the statistics, which show a worrying trend, there are faces like Niurka's, stories of young people who face motherhood without having finished their own student life.
In many cases, dropping out of school is the main consequence, and in this case, it is not due to lack of interest or poor academic performance, but because a positive pregnancy test changes the course of any girl's life.
From then on, the days pass more quickly; facing a difficult economic situation is often one of the biggest challenges. At the same time, they are the subject of endless criticism, lamentations, and uncertainty that has no place in any curriculum.
So, we must ask ourselves again and again, as an endless task: what are we doing to prevent a teenager from becoming a mother before she has finished her academic plan? What message are we sending her when the only options she finds are to drop out of school, depend financially on her family, or sometimes on a partner who often disappears?
Early pregnancy not only poses a risk to the health of the future mother. It is a fracture in her life plan, a forced renunciation of personal discovery and full youth.
This situation is not just a problem for teenagers; it is a problem for everyone, and we cannot look the other way, or we will fail those who most need to be heard. It is not enough to say, “You have to protect yourself to prevent it.” We must talk about consent, contraception, diseases, rights, and the complications that this entails. We must move away from treating teenage pregnancy as a natural consequence, an isolated case, or the result of a dysfunctional family.
A child is a blessing, but it requires planning, maturity, time, and resources. Preventing early pregnancy requires a multisectoral approach. Effective public policies, unbiased education, and family support are needed. Behind every story, there is a society that failed to inform, educate, and above all, protect.
