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The chairwoman of Save the Children Mures, Dr. Meda Neagoe, announced on Tuesday that Mures County has recorded 931 underage mothers this year, being the leader at the national level.
She pointed out that one in four children born to mothers under the age of 18 are born prematurely or with birth defects.
"Mures County reached, this year, a number of 931 underage mothers, we are on the first place in the country. It is the result of a year of anlyses carried out by Save the Children Romania, regarding the situation of underage mothers and in disadvantaged areas in Romania and in the Republic of Moldova. Unfortunately, Mures County leads in terms of underage mothers, leads in terms of children who are born to underage mothers, these children also have problems, one in four are born before term, have various birth defects, then require treatments and specialized interventions. It worries us because the total of 931 mothers refers to 2019, because it seems that in 2020 the situation is getting worse, the average birth age of a child has dropped to 16.3 years (...) The problem is that they [the mothers - ed.n.] come from disadvantaged backgrounds, one in four abandon education, school dropout increases and then they become very vulnerable in the social environment. We are trying, through the Mures branch, which has a center in Raciu commune, where the coordinator is Nicoleta Baciu, a social worker and an extraordinary woman, we try to prove and create a model. This is where it has yielded results. We are also looking for other localities where we can offer our help," Dr. Meda Neagoe said.
According to her, through the successful programme implemented in Raciu commune, it was managed to help underage mothers, including through parenting courses, but also to reduce the number of underage mothers, through contraceptive education.
"In these communities where mothers are found, we have programmes that help them trust the social worker, the health mediator, the nurse and the family doctor, they are helped with money to undergo screening tests. Save the Children help them with transport, with a doctor's appointment, with medication for them and with help for the child who is born, with clothes, medicines and formula. Unfortunately, the problem is that if they have these children, some parents live from the allowances, the fathers have an average age of 20.4 years and very few of them work and then the living from these allowances is perpetuated, which anyway does not provide a decent living standard," Dr. Meda Neagoe highlights.
