4 

Knowledge About the Body, Menstruation, Sex and Contraception, and 

Pregnancy Intentions and Strategies for Preventing Pregnancy 

This chapter examines what girls know about menstruation, sex, and pregnancy, as well 

as their intentions regarding pregnancy and the actions they took to avoid getting pregnant by 

their boyfriends. In general, the participants had much to say to interviewers about menstruation, 

the fertile period, contraception, and other related topics. This knowledge, they said, was gained 

at home when they first began to menstruate, at school, and among friends.  

4.1 First 

Menstruation 

When asked to talk about their first menstruation, about a third of the participants 

reflected on how their mothers or other female caretakers prepared mashed yams and a boiled 

egg for them to eat as soon as they told the older women of the event. Female caretakers also 

used this occasion to discuss sexual practices with the girls. Opal described her experience, 

which is typical, as follows: 

I was really afraid. When I saw the blood, I took a piece of paper to clean it off. But a 

neighbor was passing by and noticed what I was doing. She asked me to go and tell my 

mother about it. I obeyed and my mother explained to me what menstruation was and 

how to take care of myself. She also gave me an egg to eat. She also told me I was 

matured as a woman, and that if I go sleeping with men, I will get pregnant. [Opal] 

Nearly all of the participants, whether or not they were provided with special food at their 

first menstruation, reported that they had been instructed by their mother or female caretaker on 

how to care for themselves during menstruation and were told that they could now get pregnant 

if they had sex.

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  Many participants said that in addition to being told by their mothers or female 

caretakers, other female relatives who became aware of their maturation (aunts, sisters, foster 

parents, and grandmothers) also warned them that they could now get pregnant and cautioned 

them about boys and sex.  

While most female caretakers were fairly explicit in telling the girls that menstruation 

meant that they were now women and could get pregnant if they had sex with boys, a few 

parents were less direct. For example, Lily was told not to   `play' with men  or she would get 

pregnant, and Victoria was told not to  go following men around.   

Several of the participants said they had been too shy to tell their mothers or aunts when 

they began menstruating, or reported that they had run away from home before discussing 

menstruation with their mothers or female caretakers. These girls, however, seem to have 

eventually learned the same information either from girlfriends or boyfriends.  Friends, most 

girls said, were the best source of such information. For example, Naomi who had run away from 

home at the age of 13 said,  

3

 The majority of girls said that their mother or another female in the household (i.e., aunt, grandmother, or sister) 

had instructed them when they had their first menstruation. The rest were instructed by a female step parent (on the 

father's side) or peers, including, in two cases, a boyfriend. 

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