00:00The Department of Health is in charge of increasing the number of minors in the Philippines who get pregnant early.
00:09One of the visible reasons is the exposure of children to the internet.
00:14Oscar Oida is a witness.
00:20The situation of child pregnancy in the country is alarming.
00:24According to Health Secretary Ted Herbosa, for every 100,000, 15 years in the country, 59 of them are pregnant.
00:33According to the data of the Department of Health in 2022, that's more than 44 for every 100,000 in 2021.
00:42Child pregnancy is one of the leading causes of death of a pregnant woman in the country.
00:49Because they are not prenatal, they are at high risk for what we call eclampsia and pre-eclampsia and hemorrhage at childbirth.
00:57So if we can control that, we will actually be able to decrease maternal mortality.
01:02Some of the visible factors of child pregnancy are the exposure of children to the internet.
01:09What we've discovered is the internet is a big influence on sexual behavior of our teens.
01:16And then there's peer pressure.
01:17Then the socioeconomic classes.
01:19Many in the lower socioeconomic class want to get married and escape from the poverty of their family.
01:26For now, they are working with the Department of Education to strengthen education in family planning and responsible parenthood.
01:35I've actually met with Secretary Sunny Angara.
01:38This is one of the first things we talked about, how to be able to help stop the rise.
01:46Childhood pregnancy is also related to HIV among children because we're getting HIV cases at 15 years old.
01:54For GMA Integrated News, Oscar Oida, Nakatutok, 24 Hours.
02:08For GMA Integrated News, Oscar Oida, Nakatutok, 24 Hours.
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