Abhoring Child birth gives rise ti teenage pregnancy - the irony of Mafi Dove



Mrs Cynthia Morrison (M), Minister of Gener, Children and Social Protection presenting items to the Mafi Dove Clinic


In their 8th month of pregnancy, women in Mafi-Dove, a town in the Central Tongu District of the Volta Region are compelled by custom to flee their motherland to secure a safer place to deliver regardless the cost and risks involved.

For centuries, these women, who had become victims by birth and settlement, had lived under the "spell" of either losing their babies right at birth or accept to raise children with mysterious diseases should they even deliver on their homeland mistakenly.

For fear of becoming victims of the long-held belief, the gravid woman, in the heat of her baby bump, disconnects herself from the warmth of her husband and embarks on a tortuous journey across the Volta Lake to Adedome , the District Capital and other neighbouring towns where they are given the green card to labour peacefully.

This has been the generational ordeal of women in Mafi-Dove ever since its founder, Gbesi Akiti, a hunter, declared the land holy and consequently barred child birth, rearing of animals, and burying of the dead in the town.

The belief has been upheld to the extent that even when the town was gifted a clinic in 2018 (located on the outskirt of the town as a result of the taboo) with maternity ward attached to it, some women in the area feared to labour at the facility until some of their colleagues took a bold step to access maternal care the facility and laboured successfully.

Till date, a section of the women live in fear that the spell could manifest on their turn and as result, they bypass the nearby health facility to distant locations to deliver.

“ Once it borders on tradition, I think it must be respected and obeyed” one Esther Gator, a native of the town, said told eddiesdailies during a visit to the area as part of a donation made the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to the Mafi-Dove Clinic.

Teenage Pregnancy
Meanwhile, the Central Tongu District, in which Mafi-Dove forms a part, has been identified as one of the hotspots for teenage pregnancy.

The District, made up of more than 340 communities with an estimated population of 60,000 recorded a total of 490 cases in 2016, statistics gathered by the Central Tongu District Health Directorate had indicated.

Statistics gathered by the office had also revealed that in 2017, a total of 522 cases were recorded, representing 19 per cent of the total number of cases recorded in the entire Volta Region, which is made up of 25 Districts.

The District Director of Health Services at the Central Tongu District, Ms Justine Sefakor Alornyo, who took delivery of the items donated to the Mafi Dove clinic, described the trend as a blot on the successes chalked by district in access to maternal healthcare services

"Teenage pregnancy is one of the troubling issues in this district. We do not have records indicating how many of such cases came from Mafi-Dove but the issue cuts across all the communities within the district. If we should take a walk through the community, we will identify mothers as young as 14 years old," she stated.

Meanwhile, the assemblyman of the area, Mr Moses Kwasi Awukuvi-Davanyevor confirmed that teenage pregnancy was prevalent in the town.

He mentioned lack of parental control, inadequate education on the subject, and increasing economic hardship as major contributory factors to the rise in the canker.

In a chat with Kwaku Mawuli (not his real name), whose 18 year old daughter carries a three year old son, he said "today's children are very hard to control especially when you cannot provide for their needs. I believe my daughter has now learnt her lessons."

Minister worried
When informed about the statistics, the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Mrs Cynthia Morrison expressed worry about the situation, describing it as shameful and unacceptable.

She stressed that mothers in the area had a major role to play in securing the welfare of their daughters irrespective of the negligence on the part of their husbands.

She however, tasked the MP of the area, Mr Alex Gabby Hottordze and the Queen Mother of Mafi-Dove, Mama Hlorfasi II to take urgent steps to reverse the “devastating trend.”

The steps, she stressed, included; intensifying education on the subject, constantly engaging the girls to unravel their concerns, and sanctioning men who would engage in immoral sexual practices with the teenage girls.

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