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Work Cited

Mankani, Nikita. “32 Shocking Facts And Statistics About Teenage Pregnancy.” MomJunction, Incnut Incnut, 10 Feb. 2017, www.momjunction.com/articles/teen-pregnancy-and-statistics_00361369/#gref.

Lawlor, et al. “Too Much Too Young? Teenage Pregnancy Is Not a Public Health Problem.” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 1 June 2002, academic.oup.com/ije/article/31/3/552/629768.

“Teen Pregnancy: Medical Risks and Realities.” WebMD, WebMD, www.webmd.com/baby/teen-pregnancy-medical-risks-and-realities#3.

“Teenage Pregnancy | Teen Pregnancy.” MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2 Nov. 2018, medlineplus.gov/teenagepregnancy.html.

“Teen Pregnancy Issues and Challenges.” American Pregnancy Association, 6 Sept. 2017, americanpregnancy.org/unplanned-pregnancy/teen-pregnancy-issues-challenges/.

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This is baby Liam, He was born November 20, 2018 at 3:54am. Him and my friend are doing great, she’s taking a couple weeks off from school and work but she will be back for sure!

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For some teenagers/ adolescents, pregnancy and childbirth are planned and wanted, but for many they are not. While for some young women having a child when young can represent a positive turning point in their lives, for many more teenagers bringing up a child is extremely difficult and often results in poor outcomes for both the teenage parent and the child, in terms of the baby’s health, the mother’s emotional health and well-being and the likelihood of both the parent and child living in long-term poverty.

Picture from: “You're Not Alone.” Peterborough Pregnancy Support, www.mypregnancycentre.org/together/.

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You’re not alone!!

Pregnancy was not in your plans… you may feel frightened and powerless. Don’t worry, you’re not alone.  There are many support groups for teen parents. Try surrounding yourself around the people that you love and trust. It will definitely make the pregnancy a little less frightening for you and the father. Don’t be afraid to go to parenting classes or support groups. No one comes into this world knowing how to be the perfect parent, it will be a learning experience for the mom, father and the entire family. There will always be someone there for you.

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What are the options for teenagers who are pregnant?

Teens who become pregnant may be afraid to see a doctor, but it’s extremely important for the safety of the mother and the unborn child. Your doctor should discuss all options with you regarding your pregnancy, including:

abortion, or ending the pregnancy medically adoption, or giving birth and legally permitting someone else to raise your child giving birth and raising the child yourself Ideally, the future father and family members of both mother and father will be involved in making the best decisions. However, this isn’t always possible.

Birth control clinics and public health offices can provide counseling information to help you make the right choices for you and your baby.

Picture from: Stacey, Dawn. “9 Steps to Help You Through an Unplanned Pregnancy.” Verywell Health, Verywellhealth, www.verywellhealth.com/unplanned-pregnancy-help-906670.

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Many early pregnancy symptoms can appear similar to routine pre-menstrual discomforts. Tender, swollen breasts. Your breasts may provide one of the first symptoms of pregnancy Fatigue Slight bleeding or cramping Nausea with or without vomiting Food aversions or cravings Headaches Constipation Mood swing

Morning sickness plagues up to 85% of all pregnant women. Mainly a feature of early pregnancy, morning sickness usually begins around the fourth week of pregnancy and continues until around 12 weeks when it begins to resolve itself. For an unlucky minority, morning sickness can continue well into the second trimester and in rare circumstances, some pregnant women suffer morning sickness for the entire duration of their pregnancy. Morning sickness often strikes first thing in the morning but it isn't unusual for sufferers to experience bouts of morning sickness at any time of the day or night.

Picture from: “Early Pregnancy Symptoms: Morning Sickness.” Kidspot, Kidspot Australia, 4 July 2017, www.kidspot.com.au/birth/pregnancy/signs-and-symptoms/early-pregnancy-symptom-morning-sickness/news-story/a0e7e8c1073afbbc1fddd73f74566874.

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Some teenagers may think getting pregnant at such a young age would be “cool” because of famous girls getting pregnant. In reality, pregnancy isn’t all fun and games. You have to raise a human, which is a lot of work. 

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In the video above Amanda Ireland, a Gloucester, Mass. teen mother urges her peers against pregnancy; and psychologist Lisa Boesky tells Julie Chen about the social problems associated with teen pregnancy.

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What would you do?

This is my friend she is now 39 weeks and ready to pop. But she wasn’t always this big, she actually didn’t know that she was pregnant while coming into college. She found out when she was 7 months pregnant, because she was barely showing and didn’t have any symptoms. She’s had to go through so many different obstacles already and she’s still so positive about the whole situation. Most pregnant teens don’t get the support that they really need during such a stressful time in their life, but for my friend her entire family have supported her since day one, including myself.

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Raising a child isn't an easy thing to do. Raising a child while still in your teens is even harder. Raising a child, starting your career, finding yourself and getting an education are some of the hardest things most people will ever achieve in their lifetime. Can you begin to imagine going through all of these at the same time? Children need to be fed, bathed and cared for almost full time, do these people get the support they need? For many teenage girls, becoming pregnant can mean a withdrawal of support when it is most needed.

Picture from: “College Life.” Pinterest, Pinterest, 23 Mar. 2018, www.pinterest.com/cba_ssc/college-life/?autologin=true.

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Is the father in the picture?

Most fathers of teen pregnancy aren’t in the picture, luckily for my friend, pictured above, the father is in the picture and is helping out as much as possible. 8 out of 10 teen dads don’t marry the mother of their child or want anything to do with the child. Luckily that isn’t the case for her, they have their own apartment together back in Bowling Green, he comes to Lexington every Friday after class to get her and brings her back every Sunday. They will soon be looking for a place here in Lexington, so that she can finish her school at the University of Kentucky.

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The Risks

Pregnant teens and their unborn babies have unique medical risks.Teenage girls who are pregnant, especially if they don't have support from their parents are more at risk of not getting adequate prenatal care. Prenatal care is critical, especially in the first months of pregnancy. Some other risks will be listed below.

low birth weight/premature birth

anemia (low iron levels)

high blood pressure/pregnancy induced hypertension, PIH (can lead to Precambrian)

a higher rate of infant mortality (death)

possible greater risk of encephalitic disproportion* (the baby’s head is wider than the pelvic opening)

Picture from: “Teen Pregnancy Issues and Challenges.” American Pregnancy Association, 6 Sept. 2017, americanpregnancy.org/unplanned-pregnancy/teen-pregnancy-issues-challenges/.

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The Importance of Prevention

Teen pregnancy and childbearing bring substantial social and economic costs through immediate and long-term impacts on teen parents and their children

Pregnancy and birth are significant contributors to high school dropout rates among girls. Only about 50% of teen mothers receive a high school diploma by 22 years of age, whereas approximately 90% of women who do not give birth during adolescence graduate from high school and go off to further their education.

These effects continue for the teen mother and her child even after adjusting for those factors that increased the teenager’s risk for pregnancy, such as growing up in poverty, having parents with low levels of education, growing up in a single-parent family, and having poor performance in school.

Picture from: “About Teen Pregnancy | Teen Pregnancy | Reproductive Health | CDC.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/teenpregnancy/about/index.htm.

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This shows the birth rates (live births) per 1,000 females aged 15–19 years, by Race and Hispanic Ethnicity. In 2015, a total of 229,715 babies were born to women aged 15–19 years, for a birth rate of 22.3 per 1,000 women in this age group. This is another record low for U.S. teens and a drop of 8% from 2014. Birth rates fell 9% for women aged 15–17 years and 7% for women aged 18–19 years.

Picture from: “Birth Rates (Live Births) per 1,000 Females Aged 15–19 Years, by Race and Hispanic Ethnicity, Select Years.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 13 Apr. 2015, www.cdc.gov/teenpregnancy/about/birth-rates-chart-2000-2011-text.htm.

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This photo is of my beautiful best friend, who is currently almost 9 months pregnant and is still attending the University of Kentucky. Although she is pregnant, she still lives her life like a normal college student, she walks to class everyday, she works, she’s in a sorority, and she still goes out with her friends on the weekends. The crazy part about her pregnancy is that she had no idea that she was pregnant until she was about seven months in. Her tummy was very small and she didn’t have any symptoms of being pregnant. We were all very shocked.

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Teenage parents deal with a lot of stereotyping both from, including strangers and friends. Many people don't wish to acknowledge the fact that it only takes once to get pregnant, which may very well be the case for the pregnant teenager. Yet many people will look at her as lowly, assuming she got pregnant on purpose and had slept around often. Her parenting skills are doubted, even if she follows the most popular of the parenting experts. Relationships are also strained in almost all areas of a teenage parents life. In many cases the father leaves or is unwilling to accept responsibility in the first place and they are left to be a single, teenage parent.

Picture from: “Understanding How Social Norms Shape Health Behaviors: The Case of Teen Pregnancy – Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research.” National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 7 Sept. 2016, obssr.od.nih.gov/understanding-how-social-norms-shape-health-behaviors-the-case-of-teen-pregnancy/.