Navigating the intersections of health and education: a case study of early pregnancy and motherhood research in Nigeria

In Nigeria, 1 in 5 girls aged 15 to 19 years are either pregnant or young mothers. Unfortunately, pregnant teenagers and young mothers often face discrimination and are either expelled from school or forced to drop out due to the competing demands of childcare and education. Despite this, Nigeria's health and educational policies and programmes do not adequately consider these young women’s needs.

This led Dr Ayomide Oluseye to explore pathways to health and educational inclusion for pregnant teenagers and unmarried young mothers in Nigeria. This is crucial as there are economic, educational and healthcare costs when young women drop out of school early.

In a recent seminar hosted by the Centre for the Study of Global Development, Dr Oluseye shared findings and recommendations from her research and stakeholder workshop on early pregnancy and motherhood in Nigeria.

At the workshop, stakeholders discussed the challenges young mothers face but mentioned that if laws mandated that young mothers go to school, the current educational structure would not support them, so they would still be likely to drop out.

The stakeholders also discussed how the current educational policies in Nigeria fail to address in-school pregnancy and motherhood and do not equip educational professionals to handle these issues despite it being prevalent, particularly in rural areas.

Together with the stakeholders, Dr Oluseye proposed some recommendations to support pregnant teenagers and young mothers. The recommendations include:

• Raising awareness of existing policy among key stakeholders (parents/guardians, teachers and students)
• Implementing training to reduce stigma towards teenage mothers in educational settings
• Developing more robust educational and health policies that include teenage mothers and implement monitoring and evaluation strategies
• Tailoring educational systems to suit young mothers’ needs
• Providing social welfare packages for unmarried young mothers to improve school retention

More details on these recommendations can be found in this policy brief.

Following on from this research, Dr Oluseye is designing a radio programme alongside stakeholders to challenge stigmas surrounding teenage pregnancy and to provide resources for families grappling with this issue. The radio program is scheduled to commence in February 2024.