Teenage Pregnancy

Teen pregnancy is an issue in United States, it is one issue that should wait until teens are married and know what they are doing with their lives. This issue came about in the early in the 1950’s – 1960’s. Teen pregnancy is a teenage girl between the ages 13-19 (girls who haven’t reached adulthood) having unwanted or wanted babies. Janet Bode once stated in her book, “Emotions run everywhere, scared, sad, disappointment and preparation for what is about to happen” (Bode 51). If we do not act now, teen pregnancy will be out the roof. Teen pregnancy needs a stop put to it no matter what, teens are still children themselves and they are still learning how to take care of themselves:

Although teen pregnancy has often been associated with issues of principles and authority, for many teens it is full of hard decisions and change. A pregnant teen not only has

For many years teen pregnancy has been a national social problem. Views have changed over the years as society has started to adapt to the thought of teen pregnancy. “Growing evidence suggests that pre-existing academic and economic hardships play a role in the continuing struggles of teen mothers. While 85% of young women who delay having their first child until at least twenty or twenty – one obtain a high school diploma or GED, only 63% of mothers who give birth by age seventeen do so” (Crosson- Tower p255)

A topic in American society that has proved to be an ongoing, and growing issue is that none other than teen pregnancy. In recent years, teen pregnancy rates have been increasing, which ultimately led to the topics increase of public and media attention. In American society teen pregnancy is often associated with negligence, as well as being irresponsible. In American society sex education for children is underdeveloped and instead society tends to use fear and shame to highlight/combat the dangers of unsafe or underage sex. American society uses fear to instill the idea that if you become pregnant as a teenager you are a burden to society. Along with fear society loves to shame its young women who have unfortunately stumbled upon the

Statistic have shown that children from teen parent experience a greater risk of growing up in poverty, living in a single-parent family, having poor performance in school, and more vulnerable to substance abuse (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). Similarly, teen pregnancy can also affect the mother on every aspect of her life, such as psychological, emotional, physical, and financial. The pregnancy can be an overwhelmed process for many and this will lead to feelings of intense emotions, such as excitement, fear, confusion, frustration, and resentment.

Teenage pregnancy has become a major issue in today’s society for our adolescents. This is a major problem for all who are involved. It creates hurt and a struggle for on the parents, especially for the mother (Gonchar and Schulten). Also for the parent(s) of the teenager this creates struggles for them because more often than not, they end up with the load of caring and looking after the child while the teenage parents are at school or out doing other things that teenagers do. Raising a child as a teenager is not easy. Teen parents are more likely to struggle to deal with parenthood, and the child

Adolescent pregnancies remain a concern in public health worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) has indicated that annually about 16 million girls between 15 and 19 give birth. Indeed, in many countries policies and programs are developed and implemented for the prevention of teen pregnancy and reduction of risks and consequences it might cause. Furthermore, that a teenager becomes pregnant poses a risk to her health, her life and the fetus life. This situation also brings complications at psychological, family and social level. Being a young mother can affect education. Teenage mothers are more likely to drop out of high school. In fact, the correlation between early motherhood and

The social issue regarding teen pregnancy is still very prevalent in the United States. Teen pregnancy is a huge issue because it is known to have a negative effect on the mother and most importantly the child. An initial study was conducted on two teenage mothers prior to having their child. The researcher wanted to further investigate the same population for a better understanding of teenage motherhood. The purpose of case study was to examine the perceptions of two adolescent mothers. The investigator wanted to survey the participants in hopes of understanding their views of adolescent pregnancy before giving birth and after giving birth.

While many people are inclined to express indifference regarding this concept, teen pregnancy is one of the most controversial topics in the contemporary society. This experience can be devastating for some individuals, as the fact that they are raw makes it difficult for them to effectively deal with the problem. Society becomes more stressing and most teens who become pregnant come to express feelings related to shame and fear. The fact that these individuals are hesitant about letting their parents know that they are pregnant contributes to their problems and finding help sometimes becomes an impossible mission. Lack of life experience materializes into a more severe type of stress, endangering both the mother and the child.

Statistics say that seven out of ten girls that get pregnant while still in high school will drop out. Seventy percent of girls will drop out of school. In 2013, 273,105 babies were born to girls aged 15-19. That’s a terrifying number, but teen pregnancy rates are lower than ever before. Being part of the thirty percent that made it through high school, I will say one thing: the reason I made it through all four years (that’s right, there was never a moment of my high school career in which I was never a parent) was because I never saw myself doing anything else. The opportunity for school was always there. I was and still am one of the lucky few that have the opportunity for education, unlike many other countries where girls are condemned from schooling. I always knew I was going to college, and sure enough, I am the first person in my immediate family to attend a four-year university. My mother got pregnant at seventeen years old and had to drop out of high school.

Teenagers are regarded as a young person whose age ranges from thirteen to nineteen years (WHO 2006). Psychologists also referred that this period in one’s life is adolescent period in which one is in transition between childhood behaviours and adult behaviour. Within this period, the teenager is faced with numerous developmental problems or risk, either fashioned by the adolescent is exposed to experimentation, curiosity and quest for freedom. These expectation largely results in unwanted pregnancy as stated by Noble (2007) as a girl-child pregnancy. In a related development according to WHO report, it was stated that in the United States of American, about 19% of adolescent give birth by twenty years of age.

To find out you are pregnant as a teenager can affect your life dramatically. Some teenagers have chosen to have a child at such a young age as a way to fulfill a psychological desire to always have someone there to love them. Commonly with these teens in particular their home life may have been less that perfect and their parents were frequently noted to be teenage parents themselves. The appear to want to live vicariously through the child allowing them to maintain the hope that their children will be better taken care of than they had been as child.

Many of Carrollton young people are missing the opportunity of being educated. They are choosing to become parents at a young age before getting an education. Teens are ignoring the fact that education is here to help them and not harm. “The teen dropout rate of high school for pregnant teens is about 60 percent…” (“Teen Parenting”). I see teenagers dropping out of school before they enter into the ninth graded According to Teenage Pregnancy and Poverty “a third of teen mother achieve a high school diploma and that

“Being pregnant as a teenager at the age of 15 has been difficult for me ever since. At the age of 21, I am just now finishing high school at CPCC and I also have a son who is now at the age of 6. It hasn’t been all easy. I have to balance my time with my job and child. I have faced so many difficulties with me and my son’s life.” says my cousin Alejandra. Teen pregnancy is difficult for girls because Childbearing can be painful for teenage girls, Single parenting can bring in unnecessary stress to the job of raising children, and it can bring unnecessary economic/financial issues when having a baby.

Becoming a parent can be a challenging situation even for the most prepared. However, if you are a teenager, it can be the biggest challenge of young adolescent life. Teen pregnancy can affect one physically, emotionally, as well as financially. The stress and pressure that comes with finding out your pregnant can be devastating. From finding the right words to tell your parents to finding ways to pay for the cost of having your baby and the ultimate pressure figuring out how to raise your baby while trying to balance your teenage life. A pregnant teen will have to come to terms with that their lives will never be the same. Nor will the lives of all those closely related to them such as their parents. The only hope of preventing teen pregnancy is through the education of teenagers from parents and educators. Informing the adolescent of the repercussions will help prevent teen pregnancy because there is a lack of knowledge on responsibilities and commitment of taking care of an infant. The importance of sex education as well as parent involvement in demonstrating the use of effective contraceptives such as condoms or birth control can tremendously decrease the rates of teen pregnancy.