Radio România Internațional

Tag: birth

  • The pandemic and its aftermath in Romania

    The pandemic and its aftermath in Romania

    2022 is, among
    other things, the year of the housing census of the population in Romania. Initially,
    the housing census was scheduled for 2021, but it was postponed because of the
    pandemic. We are still waiting for the final data, to be compared with the data
    collected in the previous housing census carried in 2011. Meanwhile, we have
    had a look at the current statistics which sadly point to a worrying condition
    of the country’s birth and mortality rates.


    According to statistics, the number
    of the newly-born has stayed relatively constant during the pandemic. It was
    small, anyway. However, the mortality rate has soared. In 2021, irrespective of
    the death cause, the total number of the deceased Romanians went over 334
    thousand, that is 27% more than for the timeframe previous to the pandemic. All
    told, the mortality rate’s exceeding figure during the two years of the
    pandemic went over 100 thousand people. Concurrently, in Romania, in 2020, the reported
    number of the newborn accounted for 40 thousand less infants than in 2019.


    Dr Vasile
    Ghetau is a sociologist and demography expert. He told us that in that period
    of time the fewest children in the last hundred years were born. Which means
    that the natural growth rate, made of the difference between the number of the
    newborn and the number of the deceased, is still negative and only speeds up
    the natural decline.

    Dr Vasile Ghetau: The
    natural decline of the population before the pandemic, in 2019, accounted for
    71 thousand inhabitants. In 2020, the natural decline went up to 120,000, while
    the data for the first 11 months of 2021 point to a significant increase in the
    number of deaths, with the natural decline reaching almost 150,000 inhabitants.
    If we also take the month of December into account, last year we’re highly likely
    to have witnessed an appalling natural decline, of 160-170 thousand people in
    one year alone. It is an appalling figure as compared to the country’s
    population, accounting for 19 million people.


    Here
    is Dr Vasile Ghetau once again, this time speaking about the causes of the high
    mortality rate across the country.


    Dr Vasile Ghetau: The increase in the number of deaths in 2020
    and mostly in 2021 has the COVID-19 infection as its cause only in a moderate
    proportion. The deaths have been on the rise, specifically, because of the circulatory
    system conditions and of the respiratory system conditions other than COVID. This
    increase did have something to do with the pandemic, nonetheless. However,
    research studies on that are still in progress. For instance, it has been
    unanimously acknowledged that in the case of the circulatory system diseases, social
    isolation under quarantine circumstances led up to a reported growing number of
    deaths among the elderly, against the backdrop of the pandemic. As for the
    respiratory system conditions other than COVID, if we examine some of the data,
    we can see the mortality rate has grown because of pneumonia. Perhaps the general
    context of the pandemic has something to do with the characteristics of that
    virus, yet the final data, when they are provided, will offer a very accurate
    image of the mortality as a whole, in keeping with the specific causes of deaths.
    Then we can accurately measure where the COVID-generated mortality stands,
    against the backdrop of mortality as a whole.


    Until
    then,
    we can measure the immediate aftermath of mortality in recent years.

    Dr Vasile
    Ghetau    : Mortality
    rate in October and November was on the rise, and its outcome was a decline in the
    level of life expectancy at birth, which was something predictable. So, for a
    whole year, life expectancy at birth for the entire population, male and
    female, in Romania, stands at almost 76 years. Data for the first 11 months of
    the last year point to a life expectancy rate which is three years shorter, therefore
    standing at 73 years. And, if to all that we add the month of December, life expectancy
    is highly likely to stand at 72 years. A four-year decline in life expectancy,
    that is whopping. Of course, other countries are also very likely to experience
    a rather high rate of pandemic-generated mortality that may lead to a setback
    in life expectancy. Yet we’re speaking about much smaller values than those
    reported for Romania in 2020 and those that have been quite clearly outlined
    for 2021.




    Here
    is sociologist Dr Vasile Ghetau once again, this time proving that these
    figures only make an even clearer representation of a phenomenon that has
    been ongoing for quite some time now: the new generations that have been born
    in Romania no longer provide the replacement level for the population as a
    whole.


    Dr Vasile Ghetau: In order for the population to grow or at least stay the same, for a simple
    replacement, one single woman will have to give birth to two children, in her
    life. It only takes two children for a primary population replacement process to occur.
    If, on average, more than two children are born, the population is likely to
    grow, so we’re going to have more than the numerical replacement level. However,
    in Romania, the last generation to have provided for itself the genetic
    replacement is the one born in 1961. All the subsequent generations had a final
    descendance rate lower than two children for one single woman. The more such
    generations are reported to occur, the more obvious is the fact that, in time, the
    population will be on the wane because it is unable to provide its own
    replacement.


    Further data and, implicitly, a more detailed picture of the demographic
    evolution and involution, we are going to have all that as soon as the housing census
    is completed. The online self-census of individuals begins on March 14, 2022.
    The field housing census carried through a face-to-face interview kicks off on May 16,
    2022.

    (EN)


  • Mother-child or child mother?

    Mother-child or child mother?


    Dire poverty, lack of education, lack of interest,
    nobody to explain them how their own body works. These are the dismal
    ingredients of a failed life experience. Today we focus on very young
    pregnancies, reported for girls younger than 15, we’re speaking about systemic
    flaws and about what can be done to mitigate such a scourge. Romania is at the
    top of a European Union chart focusing on teenage mothers. Gabriela Alexandrescu is the Executive President of Save
    the Children.


    Gabriela Alexandrescu:

    I
    won’t be mincing my words and I shall tell you that a quarter of the European
    Union’s teenage mothers are from Romania. We all know that 23% of those young mothers who have not yet turned 19 are reported for our country. We are at
    the top of the table across the European Union regarding the number of mothers
    under 15 and 2nd-placed, after Bulgaria, according to the number of mothers
    under 19. In Romania, nearly 10% of
    the births are reported for teenage mothers. Quite a few of them come from
    localities with no family doctor for the community whatsoever, or where family
    doctors are in short supply. These girls resort to self-medication during pregnancy,
    they don’t see a medical doctor to get their name registered and their
    pregnancy monitored and just wait until things are rushing forward or their
    condition gets worse. Save the Children has been actively involved in the field
    of children healthcare from across Romania, we contribute to the provision of
    the right to live taking action along five directions. One has to do with
    supplying maternities, the paediatric and the new-born sections with state-of-the-art
    medical equipment, the second pertains to developing the specialised support
    networks for mothers and children in the rural communities, the third such
    intervention direction is the one by means of which we stage specialised
    courses of the teams of professionals (medical teams, mainly), through the
    fourth intervention direction we develop education-for-healthcare programs and
    research programs, debates with the authorities and specialists for the change
    of social policies and the laws, when needed. So far, we have worked with more
    than 56,000 pregnant females (children under 15) and we saw the change. Each
    year we work in 46 communities with mixed teams of specialists, with trained
    nurses, social assistants, psychologists who are familiar with the realities of
    those areas and address the specific reality of the young mothers and the
    children.


    Oana Motea is a UNICEF Health Specialist. She has
    drawn attention to the fact that the scourge of being pregnant when very young
    is transmitted from one generation to the next, within the family.


    Oana Motea:

    The conclusions of the Unicef – Samas report, launched earlier this year, has
    revealed that pregnancies of mothers older than 15 could be prevented through
    education and family education programs tailored according to the
    socio-cultural milieu those adolescents and the fathers-to-be live in. The
    phenomenon is cyclical, it tends to repeat itself in the same family, from one
    generation to the next and goes with the poor economic, social and healthcare
    condition. There is no clear-cut identification of the role the authorities
    play, and of their corroborated responsibilities, as regards reproduction in
    the case of the younger generations and the prevention of pregnancies in the
    case of underage mothers. There is a need for integrated public policies
    capable of targeting education for healthcare, awareness-raising efforts at
    community level and tailoring the adaptation of the interventions to suit the
    teenagers’ psychology and emotions.


    Mother-child or child-mother? It’s hard to tell.
    UNICEF’s data on Romania are quite baffling, at that.

    Oana Motea:


    In 2019, more than 16,000 pregnancies were reported
    among teenagers, down by 9% as against
    2018. Notwithstanding, with
    the adolescents who are younger than 15, we noticed an 11% increase in the north-western
    and north-eastern regions. These percentages reveal how serious the problem is,
    at once calling for educational action to be taken, capable of targeting all
    groups of teenagers, using specific communication channels, with different
    message presentation forms, tailored to suit their needs.


    A solution to mitigate the phenomenon, which tends to
    become a scourge? Doctors’ offices in the rural areas, targeted programs. There
    is no other way.

    Save the Children’s Gabriela Alexandrescu:


    As of late
    we have even launched a survey among adolescent girls in vulnerable
    communities, in partnership with the authorities in line, with the Romanian
    Senate, it was a survey targeting teenage mothers in rural and underprivileged areas.
    We did carry the survey over July-August 2021, in 46 communities across
    Romania and unfortunately, our survey has pointed to a worrying, chronic
    deficiency of the healthcare services for the teenage mother, also pointing to
    detrimental social aspects, relevant to that effect. We can say 16 years and
    three months is the average age when the first child is born, among teenage
    girls in the underprivileged rural areas. Those with more than one child are 18 and one month
    old when the second child is born, on average, and are 19 years and five months
    old when their third child is born. 40% of the mothers and the pregnant
    teenagers in the rural areas have stated they have never taken the medical
    tests recommended during pregnancy because they had no access to medical
    services or no financial resources to do that. 87% of them have never used and
    do not know any contraceptive method. 72% of the young women and girls have
    responded they lived in very modest conditions, in one, maybe two rooms,
    sharing the premises with people from other families. 55% of them have stated the
    money they got was not enough for the bare necessities, quite a few of them
    relied on their children’s allowance, while a great number of them responded
    the pandemic has negatively affected the adult’s chances to work for their
    families. There are mothers, who, not having turned 25 yet, have given birth to
    their fifth child already. And here we have a problem, a worrying situation.
    That is why we, those with Save the Children, need to get actively involved to
    alleviate the scourge in the underprivileged rural communities, deprived of
    material resources and information means. And we need to carry on with those
    information, specific intervention programs, aimed at facilitating access to
    socio-medical services.


    The good news is that the Save the Children
    Organisation has also expanded to Republic of Moldova. The successful programs
    Save the Children implemented there proved reliable.

    Gabriela Alexandrescu:




    The
    successful example we had in Romania, we’re also taking it to the Republic of
    Moldova, as there, we work with the Healthcare for Children Association and
    Children’s Rights Information and Documentation Centre in Chisinau. So as of
    this year, we have that integrated, community program covering 16 counties in
    Romania and 16 districts in Republic of Moldova. Our effort is essential, given
    that we’re all too familiar with the fact that teenage pregnancy is associated
    with higher pregnancy risks. High blood pressure, anaemia, premature birth,
    underweight new-borns, postpartum depression and suchlike, while on the other
    hand, premature maternity exposes the young mothers to the risk of school
    dropout, to the grim prospects of being engulfed by the vicious circle of
    poverty, with a transgenerational aftermath. As part of the integrated
    interventions we had in the underprivileged rural areas, advised by the local
    specialists are the teenage girls, but also their families. It is important
    that we have an unmediated communication with the girls.

    (Translation by Eugen Nasta)

  • Education for health in Romania

    Education for health in Romania


    The National Statistics Institute has as of late made
    public a series of worrying data. Accordingly, of the reported 200,000 births
    in 2019, more than 700 have placed girls younger than 15 center-stage. Almost
    18,000 of those births have been by mothers aged 15 to 19. Under
    the circumstances, at the level of the European Union, nearly a quarter, 23 per
    cent, of the underage mothers are from Romania. Such statistics should not come
    as a surprise, though. They confirm the occurrence of a plight the Romanian
    society has had to face for quite some time now. One of the causes of that
    plight is the lack of sexual education, even though it has been included in an
    optional course labeled Education for health. The course has been taught for
    many years now, as early as the 1st grade. Optional courses are
    taught by teachers, but in certain cases such courses are taught by specialists
    working for several non-governmental organizations, NGOs. Youngsters for
    youngsters is one such organization. For almost 30 years now, Youngsters for Youngsters
    has been involved in promoting education for health among the pupils of
    Romania. Adina Manea is the president of Youngsters for Youngsters.

    Adina Manea:

    If we speak about the programs run by ‘Youngsters for Youngsters’ , we work with high school pupils for the clear
    reason that we need to cover such a shortage in our national education system.
    In high school, at the age of 15, 16, 17 or thereabouts, statistics at national
    level has revealed that for many years now that is the age when adolescents
    begin their sex life, so it is important for them to know all these things
    before they start having sex. But we also speak to them about self-knowledge
    and communication, we speak about values, about decisions, about responsible
    patterns of behavior, about how we communicate…Then we broach the issue of
    contraception and obviously, the HIV prevention and what happens with the
    AIDS-related issues.


    The law has taken effect since 2014, yet the number of
    those who took that Educ Health, Education for Health, course is still very
    limited. For instance, in 2019, a mere 140,000 pupils, that is 4.6% of the
    number of pupils all told, registered for the course. And also in 2019, an
    initiative to change Law 272 of 2004 on the protection and promotion of child’s
    rights was presented before Parliament. By and large, changes pertain to
    replacing the notion of sexual education with that of sanitary education..
    The prospective changes to the law also stipulate that the parents’ and the
    children’s legal representative’s consent be mandatory, so that schools can run
    sanitary education programs. Both these changes are in no way auspicious, or at
    least that’s what some of the civil society representatives believe.

    Adina Manea:


    Introducing such a phrase, ‘the
    parents’ mandatory consent’ in a child law is an issue of overregulation. The
    Education Ministry, for everything happening in school, has specific
    methodologies regulating everything. Both the curriculum pertaining to the core
    stuff, that is the mandatory disciplines, and the optional ones, such as the
    Educ Health. This optional Education-for-health course is taught by members of
    the teaching staff, it is not being taught by people from outside the system.
    Yet at the same time, school are entitled to carry their own protocols with
    non-governmental organizations they check, they know and which they trust. All
    that entails the parents’ consent since nobody from outside the school can
    teach there without the parents’ consent.


    Adina Manea, alongside other representatives of the
    civil society, also shares the opinion that the label sanitary education has no longer been in use
    in Romanian for quite a long time now. Yet there’s more to it than that. The
    courses and activities Youngsters for youngsters run in schools are not
    limited to the basics of reproduction alone, they tackle such topics as
    pregnancy and infection prevention, these are pieces of information that could
    also be useful for the parents.

    Adina Manea:


    According to statistics, we can see
    that in Romania, the adults, that is children’s or pupils’ parents, could
    benefit from such courses as they do not know enough information they can dispatch
    to their children. A possible hindrance of that is the fact that such kind of
    education is basically run the family. Which is fine! It should be done in the
    family quite all right! But there where the family doesn’t know how to do that,
    is unable to do it or simply doesn’t exist, what are we supposed to do?


    But there where the family does exist and gets involved
    in the pupil’s life, what is the parents’ take on this issue, that of replacing
    sexual education with another phrase, sanitary education ?Iulian Cristache is the
    president of the Parents’ Association Federation.

    Iulian Cristache:


    It is true that such a label has
    prompted parents to be reluctant, which includes us, the Parents’ Association
    Federation, sharing the belief that it would better to speak about education
    for health which should indeed included a sexual education module. No doubt
    about it, sexual education must be there, yet it should be taught, of course,
    according to the pupil’s age. Teaching sexual education in primary school is
    one thing, doing that for the middle school is something different, while
    teaching it in high-school is a totally different thing. But all things
    considered, we definitely need sexual education because we have a lot of girl
    children with children. Sadly we are at the top of the table in Europe as
    regards this chapter as well and we really need that kind of education.


    As for the legislative change initiative, the Parents’ Association Federation has not been invited to take part in consultations.

    Iulian Cristache:


    We haven’t been co-opted. I
    purposefully turned up for the parliamentary commission, so we were there. Our
    take on that is known, we sent a written version of it and we had press
    releases of that. They didn’t want us there but we did go there, still. You
    know what they say; If you don’t want us, we want you.. We only did our duty,
    from this point of view. All thigs considered, it’s true there is some sort of
    reluctance to that, since there are a great many parents who deem sexual
    education a taboo topic, which is in no way normal.


    According to the Parents’ Association Federation, the
    current Education-for-health optional course ought to be encouraged to a much
    greater extent.

    Iulian Cristache:


    Unfortunately, if parents are not
    informed about that and if the principal continues to view the optional courses
    simply as a means to add up to the teaching load for part of the staff, then
    there’s nothing we can do about it. The key prerequisite is to consider, when
    it comes to education for health, taking that sexual education module. We have
    examined the curriculum, and saw it was very well adapted to suit the current
    needs. So I don’t think changes that still need to be made are substantial any
    more. And speaking about the new project, yes, the teaching staff should indeed
    include professionals capable of teaching these things. There are the Biology
    teachers, but there should also be trained nurses, there should also be
    physicians from the family planning offices. We do need professionals, so much
    so that information should be correctly dispatched without however being
    distorted.


    At present, the initiative to change Law 272 of 2004
    has been again sent to Parliament. We recall the President has refused to
    promulgate it.