Ugyen, 18, will no longer have time to hang around with friends. She is a mother now. Ugyen told us that she was not ready for motherhood. “I find her new reality a difficult thing to accept,� she said. Teenage pregnancy is becoming a major concern.
Every year teenage girls are getting pregnant and some are not even ready for the responsibility of being motherhood. Dorji Lham, Ugyen’s sister is lending Ugyen a helping hand these days. “Ugyen can’t even feed her baby properly.�
Records at the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital (JDWRNH) show that as of February 20, first two months of 2007, saw 31 teenage mothers.
From 2001 to 2007, out of 2,500 deliveries at the hospital, teenage mother deliveries were in the range of 13 percent.
Doctor Phub Dorji, a gynecologist at the JDWRNH said most of the teenage pregnancies were unprepared pregnancies. “As they are not prepared they don’t come to the hospital for regular checkups.�
As both the mother and the baby, Dr. Phub Dorji said, is in the growing age there will be clashes between the two for the food. “That will lead will to premature birth and premature birth leads to many complications later,� Dr. Phub Dorji added.
As youngest in her family, Ugyen has all the care and love from her parents who accompanied her to Thimphu. “She is very young and doesn’t know how to handle the baby,� said Ugyen’s father.
Rinzin Bidha, also 18 is eldest in her family. She got married at the age of 17 and is now two month pregnant. As the eldest she also has to shoulder the responsibility of looking after four of her siblings. She never went to school.
Motherhood brings with it unequaled joy and also challenges are many.
“To become a mother is easy but to be a mother is difficult,” said one of the young mothers who had come to the hospital for checkups.  Source:[bbs.com.bt]
