SIX months ago Rosine Kamdjop had never been told about contraception. The 16-year-old girl, from Chad, is now expecting her first child in September.

“It was the first time. I thought you had to have sex with the same man lots of times for it to be possible,” she said. “After becoming pregnant, I got information about it, but it was too late.”

She speaks in hesitant English, explaining that she arrived in Britain nine months ago after her family were killed. A termination, she said, was considered shameful in her culture.

“When I discovered I was pregnant, I was really very sad. I’m looking forward to seeing my baby, but I didn’t want to be a mother now. The difference is that, when you are a teenager, there are many things you don’t understand. I wanted to become a mother when I was married, because then you would have a husband and people would support you.”

Rosine has lost touch with her baby’s father. “I tried to phone the number he gave me, but a woman answered and I didn’t try again,” she said. She is now hoping to raise the child with the help of support workers at the Black Health Agency in Manchester.

Despite support from social services, she said that she still feels acutely the stigma attached to teenage motherhood.

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