One in 10 Pinays who gave birth in 2009 were teenagers – NSO

One in 10 mothers who gave birth in the country in 2009 were teenagers, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said in a series of civil registry reports released this week. The number of teenage Filipinas giving birth each year has been increasing since Year 2000. Live births by teenage mothers in 2000 was at 126,025 but nine years later, the level rose to 195,662 — a 55.25 percent jump. In 2009, teenaged mothers outnumber teenaged fathers 4 to 1, In contrast, only 42,761 of the acknowledged fathers were teenagers, indicating that the male partners of the teenaged mothers were usually older by at least a few years. Total live births in 2009 was 1.745 million, which breaks down to a daily average of 4,782 births and 478 teenage mothers going through childbirth every day. The latest NSO data, released Oct. 19, confirms findings of the growing risks in sexual activities among young Filipinos in a series of Young Adult Fertility Surveys (YAFS) of the University of the Philippines Population Institute. Results of the third YAFS show that about 16 percent of Filipinas 15 to 24 years old have had premarital sex and the average age for the first sexual encounter is 18. The NSO said some 13 percent of total marriages in 2009 involved teenage brides, down by 1.5 percent from 65,958 in 2008. “The number of teen brides is almost five times more than the teen grooms," the NSO said citing 2009 data. Then in 2010, there were fewer teenage brides — 3,146 less to be exact— at 62,812. — ELR/VS, GMA News