Last Tuesday morning's Newsday headline screamed "Mom of 2 goes Berserk - Baby Boy Flung Into The Sea." A 21 year old Sea Lots mother of two grabbed her two month old baby son, ran to the sea and flung the screaming child into the murky waters. A May 22nd headline showed "Hungry Babies Die in Fire." A 19 year old mother of two, and four months pregnant, had left her nearly two year old daughter and nine month old son ALONE at home to go to the construction site where her common-law husband was working to get some money for food. She could not say how the fire started. The very next day May 23 someone left a newborn baby girl in a forested area off Sancho Road, New Grant to die. And the list this year dates back to January 4 when a newborn baby boy was found at the side of the road at Palmyra Village, San Fernando. The common denominator is that the lives of helpless, young children are at risk because their parents are children themselves.
When asked for an opinion, Dr Jacqueline Sharpe, a psychiatrist who is also President of the Family Planning Association, offered the explanation that we are dealing with two issues here. "One relates to the people who have done these desperate acts, and are really a very small part of the population, it is just that it is dramatic and eye- catching. Society throughout history will show that there have been situations like these. It is not a new phenomenon by any means but it is a rare one and our response has got to be re-active with compassion. If a woman does something like this she has to have an opportunity to have psychiatric evaluation and calm decision-making.
Laws in Britain look more gently on a woman who does something like this in post partum state, as after childbirth a woman's body goes through hormonal changes which affect your mental health." The other issue is that of young people who need help to manage their sexuality. Fundamental work has to be done. These teenagers need support, the FPA has information from recent research about the sexual health needs of young people in Tobago, and similarly in Trinidad. Young people need help in managing their sexual behaviour and are asking for guidance all the time."
The FPA's programmes are working, but there is a need for expansion of those already in operation. "We need help with funding. The government's subvention needs to be increased from one to five million dollars because we recognise there is an enormous amount of youth work to be done with adolescents. We need to be working with young people from the time they are in primary school so that our kids will have good information which will help them to make healthy choices about their lives."
Why are so many young women having two and three children when they cannot even support or take care of one. Shouldn't commonsense tell them that they cannot afford the one which they have and yet they find themselves having another, was my next question.
Dr Sharpe reminded me of Shadow's calypso "Poverty is Hell. Some people are not able to manage their lives well, especially those in situations of poverty. They are not attracted to making decisions and do not have good problem solving skills. If you are able to make choices, the chances are you will not be 19 with three children."
The problem, according to Dr Sharpe "starts way before 19, because we have a lot of young people growing up parentless and who are therefore at risk for all kinds of things, so that what we are seeing with these dramatic things are really the tip of the iceberg. There are serious problems with our adolescents which get expressed in this way through teenage pregnancy, because they have little education, little sexual and reproductive education and little guidance from adults. If a young woman has a baby at 16 her development is usually truncated, and she is often left to manage how she can."
But with its lack of funds, the FPA does not have enough programmes. And since young people need strong developmental education before they get pregnant, those who get pregnant early do not have programmes to help them make choices after one baby. The Choices Programme is not countrywide, it operates in just three or four locations as a partnership between a couple of Non Governmental Organisations and the Ministry of Social & Community Development, funded by an international foundation.
Women who have newborn babies are at risk of psychiatric illness, and says Dr Sharpe "even though it seems it is happening everyday, it is really a very uncommon thing, most women do not kill their babies, even those who are really desperate and feel they should not have had that last child, usually accommodate that last child, even those who feel they want to do these things will change their minds and reverse the impulse."
Where should these desperate teenagers look for help? For people already in a serious bind like an 18 year old with three children who is not coping, there is social services available to them. Then there is the pro-active and preventive work which the FPA is committed to doing. "We have done the research, know what is happening with sexual health of young people and have programmes that do work. The evidence is very clear that young people who have access to counselling programmes and sexual education, in fact, postpone sexual activity until they are better able to manage it, and will have fewer unplanned pregnancies. We need to put more of these kinds of programmes in place although we have been in the schools for a long time and run intensive programmes in some schools. We need a multiplier effect but can only do as much as we have staff and money to do" says Dr Sharpe.
"Fewer people will be throwing babies into the sea if they were having babies because they really wanted them and not just having babies. Motherhood should be something you think about long and hard, and think about it again, because it changes your life forever. Young women should have the opportunity to be an adult before getting pregnant. A lot who have babies at age 15 or 16 have arrived there because they are looking for somebody to love them. It is their need for comfort, and a lot of these teenagers when you go into their history their mothers had babies at that age so it becomes a multi- generational problem."
For the longest while the FPA has had an outreach programme that goes to 14 rural communities at the moment and works with community leaders to provide service for the community. However, to carry out community intervention one has to work with the leaders and provide the services that the communities feel they are in need of. "We have been going into various industries, and have a radio slot, but says Dr Sharpe "we need to do more. The FPA is committed to working with adolescents and we urge the community to support us in this vital work" is her plea.