Teen Pregnancy: How Parents Can Make a Difference Podcast
Fifteen-year-old Zina, five months pregnant with twins after incorrectly following the instructions on her birth-control pills, states, “I am meant to have these babies, and I don’t want to change it in any way. If it wasn’t meant to be, then I wouldn’t be pregnant.”
Sounds almost like a movie, doesn’t it? We’ve seen versions of it in “Juno,” the story of a pregnant teen searching for quality adoptive parents, and on the CW’s Gossip Girl, where a leading female character had a pregnancy scare. In real life, Jamie-Lynn Spears, 16-year-old sister of Britney and star of Nickelodeon’s Zoey 101, announced that she was pregnant in December 2007. Needless to say, teen pregnancy is on our minds.
And it should be. The United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancies and births of all developed countries. Though these numbers had been on the decline over the last 15 years, for the first time since 1991, teen births in the United States are on the rise again. The National Center for Health Statistics released birth data for 2006, which found a 3% increase in teen births (from 40.5 births/1000 females in 2005 to 41.9 births per 1000 females in 2006). Teen mothers are less likely to finish school, more likely to be single parents, and fall into poverty. In addition, babies born to teen mothers are more likely to have low birth weight and other health-related complications, and babies born to teen parents are more likely to be teen parents themselves. Teen pregnancies cost taxpayers—take a big breath—$9.1 billion each year.
Connie Cavender, Chatsworth, GA 09/11/08
As a mother of 2 and grandmother of 2, I would like to say at the age of 16, I had my daughter, yes in 1979... it was not that my mother or parents did not teach me right from wrong or even the importance of birthcontrol... it was peer pressure and the fact I was " in love", I am proud to say, hey my daugher is beautiful, I am glad I kept had her, and raised her myself. I graduate high school on June 1 and had my daughter on July 1 and became a college graduate at the age of 20y. Please don't say it can't be done... would I do it again....yes, yes, yes, each time I look in her beautiful blue eyes... I would do it again.. I love her as much as any mother would...yes it was hard, and I missed somethings or at least many one think that... but I think having her made me MORE determined to become something and someone she could be proud to call MOM, so when you look at that 16 year old pregnant girl, please don't shame her, it is hard enough without the people you love mostly your parents or soon to be grandparent not being supportitive...love her unconditionally... you never truly know what blessing in life you could miss by not helping her, loving her, and that unborn child....she can make it... and I must say to you without the love of my parents and their undcontditonal love and accepting me for who I was at 16y, I might not be who I am today... and to beat it all my father was the pastor of a large baptist church in my community when all of this happen to me and yes, we were talked about and no one could believe that I , the preacher 's daughter could be pregnant at 16y, but I was and I don't regret the joy of my daughter and the woman that it help me to become..hey, if I had not gotten pregnant I would have probaly been a true rebel in college, but instead I went to school to learn, and while others were partying I was studiying and learning to be mom, and yes, I attend college full time, worked a full time job and took care of my daughter, it is not impossible!!! Just remmber love your child and grandchild.... they do grow up......
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