“TEENAGE PREGNANCY”

Soon you’ll be a mother” the phrase that will make every mother-to-be happy
at hearing the news. But for some mothers it may be shocking and terrifying. This is a
common case especially for those mothers who are young and get pregnant too early in
their life. For some people premature pregnancy may end happily, but for others with
abortion and serious health concerns.

Early pregnancy is considered to be the pregnancy before the age of 18. This is a
complex issue, discussions of which should take many factors into account, including
medical, psychological, social, economic, cultural and, in some cases, even religious
aspects.

Early pregnancy is a tough test both for the future mother and her parents. Most of
pregnant women are trying as hard as possible to hide their situation or try to do an
abortion. It often happens in families where parents have negative attitude towards early
relationships of their children and are against sex at an early age.

Statistically 70% of pregnancies end with abortions among teenagers, about 15% end
with miscarriages and only 15% of the girls give normal birth to the babies. The younger
the woman becomes pregnant, the more dangerous the pregnancy and giving birth will
be for her. Pregnant girls aged thirteen to sixteen years old have three times increased
the risk of miscarriage. It is difficult for them to manage the pregnancy and various
pathologies during pregnancy, such as anemia, strong toxicosis or placental
insufficiency are more likely to develop.

The comparison of differences in early childbearing across residence, education and

socioeconomic status of the adolescent suggest a changing pattern in early childbearing.
Not only has the percentage who have become mothers in their teens been increasing,
but the composition of these teenage mothers has been changing. The transition has
moved from being mostly rural, poor and with the lowest educational attainment toward
an increasing proportion of urban residents, better educated and those from the middle
to the richest socioeconomic groups have likewise commenced childbearing in the
teenage years.
World Health Organization along with the Department of Health published the
recommendations and guidelines on prevention of early pregnancies and ways to
reduce the adverse consequences of reproductive health. There were 6 objectives
outlined: reduce the rate of marriages of people who are under 18; ensure
understanding and support in order to reduce the pregnancy before the age of 20;
increase the use of contraceptives to avoid the risk of unplanned pregnancy; reduce
forced sexual intercourses; reduce abortions; increase the use of qualified prenatal,
obstetric and postpartum care by teenagers.

The success of early pregnancy depends on careful medical supervision. Parents

should hold the dialogue with their daughter about motherhood, comply with all
recommendations of the doctor. It is recommended to attend the courses for pregnant
women preparing for childbirth. Young mother learns not just about the
psychophysiology of pregnancy, childbirth and childcare, but also of how to breastfeed.
Psychological counselling is of the utmost importance.

Teenagers undergo too much peer pressure to avoid having intercourse one time or
another through their teenage years. So really the only good solution to help prevent
teenage pregnancy is using birth control and condoms. The reason this solution is better
than the rest is because it takes away almost all the chance of becoming pregnant there
is. Even if the teenager is having intercourse if the girl is taking birth control and if the boy
is using condoms there is a very little chance that becoming pregnant is possible.

The way to get more teenagers using birth control and condoms is to inform them about
how effective they really are and how well they will work for them if the decide on having
sexual intercourse. Birth control is 98 percent effective and so are condoms, so putting
the two protections together is highly effective. Teenagers need to know how easily they
can become pregnant and they also need to know how hard having a baby would be.

The solutions are not drastic. Discouraging early dating and abstinence are some
solutions that are not highly effective and the main solution to help prevent pregnancy is
using birth control and condoms as long as we get this solution out to the kids and inform
them about these methods of protection. The pregnancy rate in teenagers is much to high
so these solutions need to start being carried out so this rate is lowered drastically. Most
teenagers really do not understand how big of a life change they will undergo if pregnancy
enters their life.