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Teenage Pregnancy

Teenage Pregnancy


Despite of steadily decreasing rates of teenage pregnancy within the last decades in our country, this problem remains among the topical issues in modern American society, along with obesity, AIDS and drug abuse. In 2002 the rate of teenage births (from 15 to 19 years) totaled about 11% of all the births in the United States. Annually about 856,000 teenagers become pregnant, and approximately 425,000 become moms. At that, in our country one of three teenage girls gets pregnant before the age of 20 (Medical References).

Teenage pregnancy is, probably, one of the hardest experiences for a young developing individual. It brings to numerous changes in daily life of a teenager, like interruption of study, psychological pressure and stresses, emotional problems, including feelings of guilt or shame, and so on. Pregnancy means responsibility, which requires making serious decisions and being ready to overcome all the difficulties, connected with giving birth and bringing up the child.

As a rule, teenage pregnancy is unplanned, that is why it is accompanied with a number of possible economic, psychological and medical problems. First of all, it is necessary to make a choice between termination of the pregnancy, giving birth and parenting the baby or giving the baby for adoption. This question is among the hardest for a pregnant teenager, because, in addition to own viewpoints and feelings, teenagers are usually under heavy influence of their parents, friends, teachers, or just circumstances. That is why they are more likely to choose abortion.

Teenage pregnancy is associated with numerous risks and possible dangers, connected with physiological and psychological sides of the issue. The most regular risks for a pregnant teenager include fetal death, premature labor and/or delivery (when child is born underdeveloped), delivering a baby with low birth weight, problems with blood pressure or low iron level in blood, swelling, etc. In addition, teenage pregnancy health risks include sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS, hypertension, inability to put on weight and so on.

There are other groups of risks, mostly social and economic, which can bring to different problematic outcomes for a pregnant teenager. First of all, pregnancy in early age is usually linked to poor economic situation and single-parenting. Mostly, teenage fathers do not take their sexual relationships seriously and do not agree to create a family even in case of pregnancy of the partner. That is why a pregnant teenage girl frequently has to remain next to her parents and face all the problems of parenting her own child with or without their support and understanding.

Besides, teenage pregnancy considerably affects and limits young mother's future prospects as to her personal development, professional career and other potential achievements. Statistic shows that only about 30% of teenagers, who became parents before the age of 18, have a high school diploma, and only 1.5% of them have a degree of college level (Teen Pregnancy).

In addition, there is a great deal of risks for the babies of teenage mothers. Primarily, such risks are connected with underdevelopment and weakness of the babies. The majority of pregnant teenage girls continue smoking, drinking alcohol and even using drugs. This certainly affects their future babies' health conditions and can result in such problems, as deafness, blindness, mental disabilities, cerebral palsy, respiratory problems and many other hard diseases.

Besides, children of teenage mothers frequently receive insufficient health care. Money shortages do not allow teenage mothers to provide their children with necessary health care, and also young mothers sometimes can not cover the expenses for other necessities of their babies, like quality food, clothes, toys, etc. Moreover, teenage mothers (and fathers) are too young to master skills of proper parenting and to satisfy the demands of their rising children. That is why often their performance as parents is really poor.
In addition, there are a number of the risks, which are connected with conflicts and misunderstandings in families, possible violence, neglect and child abuse, tendency to teenage pregnancy in family history, poor performance in school and in private life, emotional problems, stresses, depressions, and many other difficulties (Teenage Pregnancy: Student Factsheet).

Finally, teenage pregnancy initiates negative social tendencies in our country. It costs billions of dollars for our government to support teenage mothers and young families with children, as well as to prevent teenage pregnancy among American youth and adolescents. Unfortunately, the rate of teen pregnancy in the United States remains the highest among the corresponding rates in world’s most developed countries (Teen Pregnancy).
A possible reason of this is lack of proper health and sex education in our schools and colleges. Specialists underline that teenage girls do not tend to get pregnant when they are free to talk about the problems of sexual relationships with their parents, teachers, etc. That is why it is extremely important to launch proper educative programs for the teenagers on the problems of sexuality and sexual relationships. It will definitely help to reduce the rate of teen pregnancy and assist teenagers in making their important choices and vital decisions.






Bibliography:

Masters, William, Virginia E. Johnson and Robert C. Kolodny. Human Sexuality. New Jersey: Pearson Education; 5 edition, 1997
"Medical References: Teenage Pregnancy." March of Dimes. MD Birth Defects Foundation. July. 2004. 1 Nov. 2006 <http://www.marchofdimes.com/professionals/681_1159.asp>.
"Teenage Pregnancy: Student Factsheet." Women’s Health. Information and Educational Services. WHQW Ltd. 22 Mar. 2006. 1 Nov. 2006 <http://www.womhealth.org.au/studentfactsheets/teenagepregnancy.htm>.
Teenage Pregnancy Unit. Official Site of TPU, Department for Education and Skills. 1 Nov. 2006 <http://www.dfes.gov.uk/teenagepregnancy/dsp_Content.cfm?PageID=85
Teen Pregnancy. Official Site of National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. 2006. 1 Nov. 2006 <http://www.teenpregnancy.org/>.
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Posted by: Anastasia T. Ray

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