Abstract
Objective: Concealed pregnancy is a public health concern with risks to girl-education as well as maternal and child health. This paper focuses on concealed pregnancy amongst adolescents attending schools in Limpopo province of South Africa. It defines concealed pregnancy, some reasons for concealment, methods used, partners in crime and implications for girl-education as well as maternal and child health.
 Materials and methods: A qualitative and exploratory study using in-depth interviews with 10 pregnant adolescents attending school, five parents and 10 educators on their experiences of caring for pregnant adolescents attending school was conducted.
 Results and Discussion: Results show that pregnant adolescents attending school conceal their pregnancies using various methods of keeping a secret, telling a lie, wearing baggy clothing, isolating and hiding among other students in overcrowded teaching spaces. They participate passively in learning activities to evade attention to themselves. Some authority figures such as educators and parents as well as other students are accomplices.
 Conclusion: To conceal pregnancies, pregnant adolescents attending schools flout antenatal care, thus increasing risks to women and children’s health. They also show lack of attentiveness to learning activities at school, thus losing chances to achieve an education.
 Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol.19(4) 2020 p.620-624
Highlights
South Africa is facing challenges of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies amongst adolescents attending schools[1]
One of the parents that shared their experiences of being a parent to a pregnant adolescent attending school was an educator at a school that did not participate in this study
The results show that adolescents conceal their pregnancies while educators and parents, who are adult authority figures[16], are accomplices
Summary
South Africa is facing challenges of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies amongst adolescents attending schools[1]. There is no coordinated care for them to go on with schooling while having access to antenatal care (ANC) 2 A pregnant woman concealing pregnancy may not go for ANC or may only go after twenty weeks’ gestation, which means that pregnancy can be concealed for some few months or in some cases until birth[3,4,5,6,7]. This paper focuses on concealed pregnancy amongst adolescents attending schools in Limpopo province of South Africa. Respondents were asked for and agreed to the use of a voice recorder Pregnant adolescents and their educators were interviewed at their schools while parents were interviewed at locations of their choice outside school premises
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