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But the teenager, who is from Nellmapius, Mamelodi, eastern Pretoria, said she regrets not listening to her mother after giving birth to her own child and is desperate to return to school to finish her study.

The young mom said her experience of pregnancy while in high school was not a pleasant one.

She said she fell pregnant when she was in grade 9 last year and she had to drop out of school because her mother refused to look after the baby.

Even though she is now prepared to return to class, Dineo said there is no one to look after her one-year-old son.

“I regret the day I started to have sex because it has ruined my future and now I’m stuck at home without the help of my baby daddy,” she said.

“I face lots of challenges every day; I don’t know anything about babies and I’m still learning and my mom sometimes leaves me alone with my baby. I’m struggling.”

Dineo said her mother continues to support her financially since she gave birth. But this help has come at a cost to her as all the money her mother gives her for clothes is now prioritised for the baby’s needs.

She said many people in her community are judging her ever since she became a mom.

“I want to encourage all teenagers to love their books first and stop running after boys as they can ruin your future,” said Dineo.

Another 15-year-old teenage mother said she has a one-year-old baby girl and every day is a struggle. She does not have an ID to apply for social grant. Her mother is the only one who is supporting her financially and takes care of the baby.

“I wish I could go back and things would be normal. I’m now left with a baby girl to raise alone without her father,” said the teen mom.

Her child’s father left when she told him that she had fallen pregnant and her family laid a complaint with boy’s family, but he apparently denied he was the father.

*Names withheld to protect them.

SowetanLive