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Early pregnancy has been a serious nation-wide problem for a long time. Although the rate of teen pregnancy has decreased recently, it still remains high in comparison with other developed countries. This situation is an important concern as teen mothers face many problems with their health and health of their children and their opportunities in the future are not that positive.
How does that happen that teenagers get pregnant? First of all, this happens due to the lack of truthful information on intimate relationships and their consequences. Parents might feel too uncomfortable to discuss sex with their children. So the only sources of information about sex are media and peers. Mass media often forms distorted image of intimate relationships between men and women and teenagers might become convinced that it is normal to have sex whenever and with whoever they want. Bright and colorful movies do not explain what to do when a girl conceives, or when a teenager gets affected by a sexually transmitted disease.
Early motherhood is good neither for mother herself, nor for a child. Statistics in this country is rather gloomy. Teens too often have poor eating habits, neglect to take their vitamins, and may smoke, drink alcohol and take drugs, increasing the risk that their babies will be born with health problems. Studies also show that teens are less likely than older women to be of adequate pre-pregnancy weight and/or to gain an adequate amount of weight during pregnancy (25 to 35 pounds is recommended for women of normal weight). Low weight gain increases the risk of having a low-birthweight baby (less than 5˝ pounds).
Pregnant teens are least likely of all maternal age groups to get early and regular prenatal care. In 2002, 6.6 percent of mothers ages 15 to 19 years received late or no prenatal care (compared to 3.6 percent for all ages).
A teenage mother is at greater risk than women over age 20 for pregnancy complications such as premature labor, anemia and high blood pressure. These risks are even greater for teens who are under 15 years old. These youngest mothers also may be more than twice as likely to die of pregnancy complications than mothers ages 20 to 24.
Three million teens are affected by sexually transmitted diseases annually, out of a total of 12 million cases reported. These include Chlamydia (which can cause sterility), syphilis (which can cause blindness, maternal death, and death of the infant) and HIV (the virus which causes AIDS, which may be fatal to the mother and infant).
Life often is difficult for a teenage mother and her child. Here is statistics and facts that demonstrate that:
- Teen mothers are more likely to drop out of high school than girls who delay childbearing. A 1997 study showed that only 41 percent of teenagers who have children before age 18 go on to graduate from high school compared to 61 percent of teens from similar social and economic backgrounds who did not give birth until ages 20 or 21.
- With her education cut short, a teenage mother may lack job skills, making it hard for her to find and keep a job. A teenage mother may become financially dependent on her family or on public assistance. Teen mothers are more likely to live in poverty than women who delay childbearing, and over 75 percent of all unmarried teen mothers go on welfare within 5 years of the birth of their first child.
- Teens may not have good parenting skills, or have the social support systems to help them deal with the stress of raising an infant.
- A child born to a teenage mother is 50 percent more likely to repeat a grade in school, and is more likely to perform poorly on standardized tests and drop out before finishing high school.
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