The Reasons Most Teenagers Become Pregnant:
There are two factors that appear to have influence over the teen pregnancy statistics. One is poverty since girls who live below the poverty line are ten times more likely to become pregnant than girls from affluent families. Some feel the lack of money contributes to the lack of access to contraceptives. A second reason is inadequate education in regards to sexuality, the appropriate use and availability of contraceptives and the socioeconomic factors affecting their lives. Regardless the vast majority of these pregnancies will be unplanned, unwanted, and unprepared for.
Teen Sexual Trends and Contributing Factors:
It’s a hard fact for many parents to face, but it’s perfectly age appropriate for teenagers to be curious about sex. The problem is most parents’ reaction to that curiosity is usually shame and lack of communication. When we avoid talking to our kids about sex we leave them no choice but to find their own answers. We also need to remember the issue of peer pressure. Most teens have stated they were not ready for sex but felt obligated due to peer pressure from their friends and/or partners. Sexual abuse will also play a factor in the sex practices of teenagers. Roughly 60% of girls state their first sexual experience before 15 was due to force, meaning rape and those interactions are responsible for about 10% of teen pregnancies. Girls who are victims of incest are also much more likely to be sexually promiscuous as teenagers. The large increase in the usage of drugs and alcohol by teenagers will also naturally contribute to the increase of irresponsible sex practices.
Abuse:
Teenagers who witness or are victims of physical abuse are more likely to become teen parents. Girls with abusive or absent fathers tend to start having sex at earlier ages since it’s not uncommon for girls to associate sex with love therefore they begin having sex in an attempt to fill the void of not having a father. Males who witness sex in the home are obviously more likely to become abusive themselves. Many studies have proven over half of all teen pregnancies involve girls who are currently or were in abusive relationships with the child’s father at the time of conception. It’s very common for the boyfriends to abuse these girls and control every aspect of their life. What most teen girls in these situations don’t understand the abuse very seldom stops after conception. In fact, more than likely it only gets worse and once they become pregnant, they’re less likely to leave because they don’t have the education, job skills, resources, and/or support to raise a child on their own leaving them completely dependent on an abusive partner.
Possible Medical Problems Associated W/ Teen Pregnancy:
Clearly there’re a number of financial and emotional factors related to why teens shouldn’t become parents, but there’s also a number of medical factors often overlooked especially for girls 14 and under. Their pelvic region is not fully developed and may not be wide enough to allow for a normal birth. Most would say, well there’s always the ability to have a C-section. This is true unless the girl lives within serious economic poverty. If that is the case, she may be subjected to less than adequate medical care if she seeks medical care at all. This can lead to the death of the infant and sometimes the death of the mother as well.
Teens also have bodies that are still developing, meaning they’re already in need of certain amounts of nutrients and vitamins for their own growth that they usually don’t get because of their unhealthy eating habits. Common sense would dictate if they can’t take care of their own growing body, they can’t care for a growing fetus. Add issues such as smoking, drinking, and/or taking drugs, the risk factors for under development, low birth weights, deformity, and/or death will once again increase. Each year over 9 million young people between the ages of 15 and 24 receive an STD and these can be extremely dangerous to an unborn fetus. Chlamydia can cause sterility in the person affected as well as eye infections and pneumonia in the baby. Syphilis can cause blindness and maternal/ infant death. We’re all familiar the damage that can be caused by HIV or having Aids while pregnant. Receiving treatment can reduce the risk of passing it along to the baby, but as with any type of medical treatment, there’re no guarantees.
Babies born to teen mothers are more likely to die during their first year and the risk is even higher for babies born to mothers under 15. This is because teen mothers are more likely to have babies of low birth weight and/or prematurely and these babies can face issues with underdeveloped or undeveloped organs, respiratory problems, possible bleeding in the brain, vision loss, and/or serious intestinal problems.
Other Issues With Teen Pregnancy:
Young girls seriously underestimate how difficult life as a teen parent can actually be. I refer specifically to the girls because almost all of these girls will also be single parents. Only 40% of teen mothers graduate high school and 1 out of 100 will actually graduate from college. With a limited education they reduce their opportunities to learn job skills and/or acquire employment. A teen mother will then become completely dependent on her family and/or public assistance. When these mothers become so invested in this cycle, they’re less likely to work to get out of it. Therefore, they remain in a state of being uneducated, jobless, and living in poverty. It’s estimated 64% of children living in poverty are the children of teen mothers. They experience a higher rate of learning disabilities and behavioral problems in school. They are more likely to repeat a grade in school, perform poorly on standardized tests, and evenly drop out. Some speculate the child’s difficulty is due to lack of stimulation from their parents during infancy. Often teen mothers are far too concerned with the own lives and don’t understand and/or care about the importance of attending to the physical/emotional needs of their child.
What’s The Answer:
So what is the solution? While it’s true teen pregnancy is an epidemic that’s 100% preventable, it doesn’t change the fact we’re clearly losing the fight. So regardless of your views surrounding the subject of teens having sex, what we can’t afford to do anymore is keep pretending it’s not happening or that someone else will address the subject. Our teens cannot continue to be naive about the level of responsibility required in being a parent. They need to understand that once they make the choice to be a parent, someone besides themselves will forever be affected by the choices they make in the future!
And before anyone thinks I am speaking on a subject I couldn't possibly relate to, I was also a teen parent so I know first hand the difficulties. I also took responsibility for my teen child. I went to college at night and worked forty hours during the week to support him and I did not have any more children until I was married. I am not proud of that marriage and I did have to do a great deal of parenting during it by myself and was a single parent of three after my divorce. So yes I am very proud of the fact that I did with my three children what some two parents have trouble doing. My oldest son, who I had as a teenager, completely blows out of the water every stereotype there is about teen mothers raising boys without a strong father figure. My current husband was not a part of his life until he was 13 and I am grateful everyday for him, but even to that point, my son had never had so much as a detention, had never done drugs, had never been in a fight, had never even had a negative report from school. He is now a senior who is involved in sports, is 8th in his class academically, is in the NHS, is in the mentor program, and is a kind, good hearted, respectful young man. My other two children also get good grades and are respectful, good hearted children. They have done all this while one of them surviving a father who has never been there for him and all them surviving my marriage to an abusive alcoholic. I also graduated college with an Associates, Bachelors, and Masters degree and I am currently working on a second Masters. I am by NO means saying I am the perfect parent or some "be-all to end-all" because I do make plenty of mistakes, but I have always known that everything in my children's lives would shape the people they become and I have ALWAYS taken my job seriously. I was responsible for three living, breathing, functioning creatures. That is not a small task and too many people do not give it the respect it deserves. The majority of what molds a person emotionally, psychologically, physically, and academically actually happens between the ages of birth and 7, everything after that can make modifications, but who they are, is already there. Your child is basically a computer with no backspace and no delete button.
The age you start having children is not always the most important factor. What truly matters is that you accept responsibility for your actions. Too many teen, males and females, are not willing to accept responsibility, but they also look at adoption as such an insult. "No one else is going to raise my child". Guess what? The second you decided to bring another life into this world, it stopped being about you and now it is ultimately best for that child and nothing else! Every interaction counts...Every word counts...Every moment counts...and if you are not adult enough to take that seriously then you are not adult enough to be a parent.
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