More than 3,800 children gave birth last year. Since the beginning of this year, 946 girls under the age of 18 have already become mothers, according to data from the National Health Information System. Yambol (Southern Bulgaria) is among the regions with the highest number of underage births. The average age of mothers there in 2025 was 22 and a half.
Iliyana is 15, has completed seventh grade, and has been a mother for just a few days.
“Iliyana, 15-year-old mother: ‘This is my first birth, I want to have another child… my mother-in-law will help me raise my child.
– How old was your mother when she gave birth to you?
– 12–13…’”
She says she knows how to care for babies, having helped raise four brothers and three sisters at home. In Yambol region, underage mothers number close to 200—every fifth birth in the region is to a girl under 18.
Dr Antoneta Antonova, director of the St Ivan Rilski Hospital in Yambol: “We do not have very young cases—11- or 12-year-olds—as some statistics suggest. But those aged 13, 15 and 16 are the youngest.”
Young mothers have usually dropped out of school.
Dr Antoneta Antonova, obstetrician-gynaecologist and hospital director, added: “They study up to fourth, seventh or eighth grade. Very few are completely illiterate.”
Georgi Georgiev, senior expert at the Regional Department of Education in Yambol, said: “We have visited pupils at home—some aged 12, 13 or 14—who are in advanced stages of pregnancy and no longer attend school.”
Due to accumulated absences, they are most often expelled. What happens to them afterwards, however, is rarely tracked.
Georgiev added: “The headteacher submits a report to child protection services, which then inform the Prosecutor's Office. What measures are taken afterwards, I cannot say.”
Cases of underage mothers returning to school are rare. However, health mediators working in local communities report a significant decline in their number compared with 2010, despite persistent cultural factors.
Atanas Atanasov, a health mediator, said: “In most cases, we would say this is a tradition. At the root of all this…”
He added that finding employment remains a major issue: “If you want to get a normal job, it is not possible without education.”
Experts are unanimous—the place for these girls is in school. To achieve this, sustained efforts are needed within communities to delay motherhood, promote education and improve living standards.
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