Staff Reporter
A total of 145 babies born to girls aged 14 and below were registered in the Free State in 2020, as cases of early pregnancy and motherhood remain alarmingly high in South Africa.
According to a Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) report on live births released on Friday, last year the country recorded 3 183 births by mothers aged between 10 and 14 years.
KwaZulu-Natal with 640 accounted for the highest number of births among that age group, followed by Limpopo with 536, the Eastern Cape 517, Gauteng 419, Mpumalanga 357, the Western Cape 304 and the North-West 176.
The Free State and the Northern Cape had the lowest at 145 and 89 respectively.
The total number of babies born to mothers aged 14 and below in South Africa in 2020 is 228 less than the 3 411 recorded in 2019, while the figure stood at 1 804 in 2018.
There is however a marked decrease in the number of births recorded among the 15-19 years age group, with 84 328 births registered in the country in 2020 compared to 109 847 the previous year.
The Free State accounted for 3 777 of the babies born to mothers aged between 15 and 19 years of age who were registered in 2020.
A total of 899 303 children were born to mothers aged between 10 and 54 years across South Africa in 2020, with 42 897 of the births occurring and being registered in the Free State.
Stats SA expressed concern about the number of teenage mothers recorded in 2020.
“A total of 34 587 births were of mothers aged 17 years and younger. Of the 34 587 births from teen mothers, 16 042 were aged 17 years while 688 were 10 years young,” it said in a statement.
“Early pregnancy and motherhood in South Africa creates a greater risk in terms of maternal complications resulting in low survival rates of babies and forces many girls to prematurely take on an adult role which they are not emotionally or physically prepared for.”
Stats SA says the law requires all new-born babies to be registered within 30 days of their birth.
In 2020, 80 percent of births complied with the law.