Inside Mtwapa’s Youth-Friendly Centre

Accompanied by her mother, a teen mother holds a months-old daughter as they attend a postnatal clinic at Mtwapa Youth Friendly Centre, which attends to teenage mothers and youth in Kilifi county.

Samiya Mabruk, the medical superintendent for Mtwapa Health Centre, where the centre is situated, says here, teenage mothers get antenatal services, immunisation, counselling, HIV-Aids services and family planning.

“The youth make a big part of our population and are also frequent health seekers. Unfortunately, there are some services that are a little bit stigmatised when it comes to culture and society,” she says during an interview at the hospital.

The facility has a unique clinic called First-Time Young Mothers Clinic, which could be the only one in Kenya. Eligibility is between 15 and 24 years. 

“We see young mothers who are pregnant for the first time or those who have had their first child but have not completed immunisation.” 

Mabruk says about 793 young mothers have been attended to in the clinic in a year.

The facility was started in a collaboration between UNFPA, International Centre for Reproductive Health (ICRH) and the Kilifi Health department.

“In other clinics, the young mothers have to line up with their mothers, aunties and neighbours. But for us, it’s different as they have their own place, and this actually increases uptake of the services,” Mabruk says.

Priscillar Chigulu, a clinician at the clinic, says most of the young mothers are not informed on sexual reproductive health matters.

“The essence of this programme was to improve their maternal outcome because most girls were giving birth at home because fear, stigma and discrimination associated with teenage pregnancy is very high in the community, and they had no safe place to go and explain themselves freely,” she says.

She attends to an average of 10 to 15 teenage mothers in a week.

The youngest to be enrolled was in 2020 and was 11 years old and had undergone a C-section. She finally went back to school after the services from the facility.

The centre has a linkage with paralegals, who follow up on some cases, and has referral programmes to make sure teenage mums are followed up.

“We want to face away malnutrition and make sure the girls are informed,” she says.

“And as we do that, we are setting an example to other girls in the community that as they come, it’s a rehabilitative platform for them and a safe space for them.”

Youth visit the facility to get condoms, counselling and any information on reproductive health from fellow youth.

Yusuf Bari, one of the mentors at the facility, says in partnership with SAFE Pwani, they use spoken word, poems and acting to pass messages to fellow youth.

Both Bari and Chigulu say the main challenge and threat to the future of the facility is financial sustainability to keep the programme going.