Prevention of Teen Pregnancy

Prevention of teen pregnancy in
developing world and Malaysia

1. REDUCE MARRIAGE BEFORE THE
AGE OF 18 YEARS
Early marriage is a risk factor for early pregnancy and poor reproductive
health outcomes. Marriage at a young age perpetuates the cycle of under-
education and poverty.
• What can policy-makers do?

 Prohibit Early Marriage
• What can individuals, families and communities do?

 Keep Girls in School
Policy-makers must increase formal and non-formal educational opportunities for girls
at both primary and secondary levels
• Influence Cultural Norms that Support Early Marriage

2. CREATE UNDERSTANDING AND SUPPORT TO
REDUCE PREGNANCY BEFORE THE AGE OF 20 YEARS
Worldwide, one in five women has a child by the age of 18. In

the poorest regions of the world, this rises to over one in three
women. Adolescent pregnancies are more likely to occur among
poor, less educated and rural populations.

 Support Pregnancy Prevention Programmes among Adolescents
• What can individuals, families and media do?

 Educate girls and boys about sexuality
 Build Community Support for Preventing Early Pregnancy
3. INCREASE USE OF CONTRACEPTION
Sexually active adolescents are less likely to use them than adults, 5 even
in places where contraceptives are widely available.

 Legislate access to contraceptive information and services.
 Reduce the cost of contraceptives to adolescents

 Educate adolescents about contraceptive use.
 Build community support for contraceptive provision to adolescents
• What can health systems do?

 Enable adolescents to obtain contraceptive services
4. REDUCED COERCED SEX
Girls in many countries are pressured into having sex, often by
family members. In some countries, over a third of girls report
that their first sexual encounter was coerced

 Prohibit coerced sex.

 Empower girls to resist coerced sex.
 Influence social norms that condone coerced sex
 Engage men and boys to critically assess norms and practice
5. REDUCE UNSAFE ABORTION
An estimated 3 million unsafe abortions occur globally every year
among adolescent girls 15 to 19 years of age. Unsafe abortions
contribute substantially to maternal deaths and to lasting health
problems

 Enable access to safe abortion and post-abortion services

 Inform adolescents about safe abortion service
 Increase community awareness of the dangers of unsafe abortion
• What can health systems do?

 Identify and remove barriers to safe abortion service
6. INCREASE THE USE OF SKILLED ANTENATAL
CHILDBIRTH AND POSTPARTUM CARE
• Expand access to skilled antenatal, childbirth and postnatal
care.
• Inform adolescents and community members about the
importance of skilled antenatal, childbirth and postpartum
care
Malaysia’s effort in preventing
teen pregnancy
1. Adolescent Health Programme
o established in 1996 as an expanded scope of the Maternal
and Child Health Programme of the Family Health
Development Division at the Ministry of Health
o Since then, the Ministry has developed various guidelines,
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and health education
materials to train healthcare providers on providing
adolescent friendly health services.
o Currently, adolescent health services are integrated into all of
the approximately 3,000 government healthcare facilities
nationwide.
o Services provided include promotive, preventive, curative and
rehabilitative services through multidisciplinary teams of
healthcare providers.
2. Verbal confidentiality contract
o the verbal confidentiality contract (VCC) is
practiced by healthcare providers to create a safe
space for teens to open up about their issues,
especially as their emotional and mental burdens
o However, if an external party is harming the
teen, or if she is in danger of harming herself or
others, the healthcare provider will have to waive
the confidentiality with the teen’s safety and best
interests in mind and refer the case to relevant
child protectors.
3. Screening tool for silent screams
• Ministry has introduced several screening tools to help
train healthcare providers with soft skills to further
explore any underlying psychosocial issues and to
detect risk and protective factors that may contribute
to the teen’s issues.
• The Ministry also produces health educational
materials which can be found on www.
infosihat.gov.my. Teenagers could also submit their
queries to ‘Ask the Experts’ forums at the MyHEALTH
portal - www.myhealth. gov.my. An informative
YouTube channel is also available under the account
“Kesihatan Keluarga”.
4. Training teen-friendly healthcare
providers
• The Ministry regularly trains healthcare providers at
the national, state and district levels to be sensitive
and non-judgmental while engaging with teens using
detailed standard operating procedures (SOP) and
guidelines.
• HEADSS
• Ministry launched the Generasiku Sayang Programme
(GKS) in 2015 to create awareness and support
pregnant teenagers through inter-agency
collaborations to ensure holistic intervention with
regards to health, education, welfare, safety, spiritual
and other social support.
• The Ministry of Health works together with major
agencies to tackle various social determinants which
affect adolescents’ health such as the Ministry of
Education, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of
Women, Family and Community Development, JAKIM,
various religious bodies, the police and NGOs like the
Federation of Reproductive Health Association
Malaysia, Malaysian Medical Association, Malaysian
Mental Health Association, Malaysian Association for
Adolescent Health and other agencies.
References
• World Health Organization Department of Maternal,
Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health
http://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent
/documents/preventing_early_pregnancy_brief.
pdf
• http://www.infosihat.gov.my/infosihat/media/buku%20kecil/
T/pdf/09_teen.pdf

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Prevention of teen pregnancy in

developing world and Malaysia

• What can policy-makers do?

• What can individuals, families and communities do?

• Influence Cultural Norms that Support Early Marriage

Worldwide, one in five women has a child by the age of 18. In

• What can policy-makers do?

• What can individuals, families and media do?

• What can policy-makers do?

• What can individuals, families and media do?

• What can health systems do?

• What can policy-makers do?

• What can individuals, families and media do?

• What can policy-makers do?

• What can individuals, families and media do?

• What can health systems do?

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