Teenage pregnancy is usually a crisis for the pregnant girl and her family. Common reactions include anger, guilt, and denial. If the father is young and involved, similar reactions can occur in his family.
Babies born to teenage mothers are at risk for long-term problems in many major areas of life, including school failure, poverty, and physical or mental illness. The teenage mothers themselves are also at risk for these problems.
Pregnant teens can have many different emotional reactions:
• some may not want their babies
• some may want them for idealized and unrealistic ways
• others may view the creation of a child as an achievement and not recognize the serious responsibilities
• some may keep a child to please another family member
• some may want a baby to have someone to love, but not recognize the amount of care the baby needs
• depression is also common among pregnant teens
• many do not anticipate that their adorable baby can also be demanding and sometimes irritating
• some become overwhelmed by guilt, anxiety, and fears about the future
There may be times when the pregnant teenager’s emotional reactions and mental state will require referral to a qualified mental health professional.
If pregnancy occurs, teenagers and their families deserve honest and sensitive counseling about options available to them, from abortion to adoption. Special support systems, including consultation with a child and adolescent psychiatrist when needed, should be available to help the teenager throughout the pregnancy, the birth, and the decision about whether to keep the infant or give it up for adoption.
TEEN PREGNANCY OUTCOMES
Teen pregnancy is bad for the mother…
Future prospects for teenagers decline significantly if they have a baby. Teen mothers are less likely to complete school and more likely to be single parents. Less than one-third of teens who begin their families before age 18 ever earn a high school diploma. Only 1.5% earn a college degree by the age of 30.
There are serious health risks for adolescents who have babies. Young adolescents (particularly those under age 15) experience a maternal death rate 2.5 times greater than that of mothers aged 20-24.
Common medical problems among adolescent mothers include poor weight gain, pregnancy-induced hypertension, anemia, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Later in life, adolescent mothers tend to be at greater risk for obesity and hypertension than women who were not teenagers when they had their first child.
Teen pregnancy is closely linked to poverty and single parenthood. Almost one-half of all teenage mothers and over three-quarters of unmarried teen mothers began receiving welfare within five years of the birth of their first child. The growth in single-parent families remains the single most important reason for increased poverty among children over the last twenty years.
Teen pregnancy is bad for the child…
Children born to teen mothers suffer from higher rates of low birth weight and related health problems. The proportion of babies with low birth weights born to teens is 21 % higher than the proportion for mothers age 20-24. Low birth weight raises the probabilities of infant death, blindness, deafness, chronic respiratory problems, mental retardation, mental illness, and cerebral palsy. In addition, low birth weight doubles the chances that a child will later be diagnosed as having dyslexia, hyperactivity, or another disability.
Children of teens often have insufficient health care. Despite having more health problems than the children of older mothers, the children of teen mothers receive less medical care and treatment. In his or her first 14 years, the average child of a teen mother visits a physician and other medical providers an average of 3.8 times per year, compared with 4.3 times for a child of older childbearers.
Children of teen mothers often receive inadequate parenting. Children born to teen mothers are at higher risk of poor parenting because their mothers – and often their fathers as well – are typically too young to master the demanding job of being a parent. Still growing and developing themselves, teen mothers are often unable to provide the kind of environment that infants and very young children require for optimal development.
Children of teenagers often suffer from poor school performance. Children of teens are 50 % more likely to repeat a grade; they perform much worse on standardized tests; and ultimately they are less likely to complete high school than if their mothers had delayed childbearing.
ABORTION
• One in five women (19%) obtaining abortions are teens.
• 45% of teens who become pregnant unintentionally have abortions. .
• 29 states currently have mandatory parental involvement laws in effect for a minor seeking an abortion.
• About 40% of teens who have abortions do so without their parents’ knowledge or consent.
• The reasons most often given by teens for choosing to have an abortion are being concerned about how having a baby would change their lives, feeling that they are not
mature enough to have a child and having financial problems.
HOW TO AVOID TEEN PREGNANCY
Sex and Contraceptive Education for Teenagers
Sex and contraceptive education may be the most effective way to reduce teen pregnancy. Yet, teenagers are generally uninformed about the availability, efficiency, and choices of contraceptives available. A little number of schools districts teach sex education. Most of these – promote abstinence instead of teaching teenagers how to protect themselves if they are going to have sex.
Who have had sexual intercourse
at different ages
• Teens must be educated and informed about how to change their sexual behavior and how to use contraceptives correctly. They need basic information about how to protect themselves and their reproductive health.
• Teenagers must develop skills in communication and sexual decision making so that sex does not just “happen”.
• 25 % of teenage mothers give birth to a second baby within 2 years. Teenagers must be aware of the consequences of having more than one child at a young age.
10 Tips For Parents To Help Their Children Avoid Pregnancy
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy has reviewed recent research about parental influences on children’s sexual behavior and talked to many experts in the field, as well as to teens and parents themselves. From these sources, it is clear that there is much parents and adults can do to reduce the risk of kids becoming pregnant before they’ve grown up.