Beyond Judgment: Why We Must Stand With Young Single Mothers In Kenya
Some of these women terminate pregnancies due to lack of support from the baby daddies and their parents. They feel like life has reached an end, like there is nothing they can do, we all know they made a mistake by getting pregnant at first but we all need a second chance right? Beyond Judgment: Why We Must Stand With Single Mothers and Give Them a Second Chance
All my childhood I grew up knowing that life is well arranged timetable. Starting going to school from nursery [kindergarten], then joining primary school, secondary school and then university or college. After which you graduate, get a job and then get married. That’s how I pictured a normal life should be lived until I joined campus! And my point of view about life changed completely. Most girls in my school got pregnant and here I thought people got pregnant only after getting married. That was never an issue that I thought was disturbing until I came to learn that most pregnancies were never planned.
In addition, majority of the ladies who got pregnant were betrayed by their boyfriends! Sad, very sad! I mean, you were all in love, did everything together, sacrificed your time and resources only to get betrayed when things get serious. I once heard a friend say ‘imagine boy wangu aliniruka kiyesu kipetero’ meaning that her boyfriend betrayed her like the way peter betrayed Jesus three times. It’s sad how these ladies have to figure out how life is going to be for them and their new found babies on their own. Majority end up having abortion rather than keeping the pregnancies not knowing the consequences of terminating pregnancies. Sometimes desperate situations call for desperate measures and we all tend to forget about the future.
Something that is more hurting is that these new found wave of emotion will be with you for as long as we live, whether you choose to keep or terminate the pregnancy. For instance if you keep your baby it becomes part of your life forever, and if you terminate you also become a guilty being forever. But there is something we need to understand being a parent at a tender age is not an easy thing as much as we judge these young beautiful women. I know many people out there are used to insulting them, calling them stupid and naïve without understanding that anyone can mistakes and to error is human.
Some of these women terminate pregnancies due to lack of support from the baby daddies and their parents. They feel like life has reached an end, like there is nothing they can do, we all know they made a mistake by getting pregnant at first but we all need a second chance right? Suicide also come hand in hand with unwanted pregnancies. So what I’m trying to drive home is let’s be less judgmental and lets have protected sex to avoid unwanted pregnancies. Support these women with all you can especially the boyfriends, be there for them because a baby is a blessing and not a disease.
