Teenage Pregnancy Raises Questions of Necessity Free Essay Example

The situation of teenage pregnancy is increasing daily throughout United States of America. This is a big concern for families and the whole society. The assistance requirements for teens pregnant should not be neglected. Studies show such a pregnancy can have a huge impact on a girl and her baby. Many teenage mothers are on welfare. They drop out school, so only two fourth receive GED or high school diploma. Studies also show teen pregnancies end up costing seven billion every year in lost tax revenue, foster care, public assistance, child healthcare and criminal justice (Dr.

Swierzewski).Is there any alternative concepts that help to manage teenage pregnancy and keep healthy relationship?

There is an obvious lack of knowledge of contraceptive, sexual assertiveness and low empowering teenage pregnant. Many young women are depressed because they have partial or no support. Honig’s book offers concluded ideas on how mothers who have physical and emotional bonds during pregnancy, demonstrate positive interactions with their newborns.

Whereas teen mothers who are characterized by a lack of support struggle to have bonded with their infants. In her qualitative research, she confirms that professionals play a critical role in recognizing teen mothers and their infants who may be at high risk for poor outcomes. Accurate clinical assessment of high-risk individuals can predict less optional parent-infant interactions in the early months after birth (Brophy-H&Honig.1999).

At the same time, School districts especially in Arizona offer little or no education instructions, since state law leaves it up to district to determine what they want to teach .

Many district instruct on stress abstinence, with minimum of discussion of contraceptives for fear of encouraging to have sex. Regarding abstinence, researchers confirm that most abstinence-only programs do not have much effort on the sexual behavior of teenagers. The programs may delay the onset of sexual activity. Most studies show little difference between sexual activity, pregnancy rates and exposure to sexually transmitted disease between students in any abstinence-only programs and students who do not take any sex education classes at all. Overall, teenagers need a comprehensive sexuality education that includes both abstinence promotion, accurate information about contraception and human sexuality and diseases. If nothing is done to make the change, the situation will continue to increase then to chaos. Hubel explains how teenager mothers and their families are in danger. Pregnant teens hide their pregnancies. Healthcare professionals may know the pregnancy at the latest semester. An adolescent may get pregnant again before her twentieth birthday. This can cause reproductive health problem (Hubel.2020).

Considering the challenge teenage pregnancy encounter, it is critical that programs continue to go beyond medical information like birth control, resisting peer pressure and teach about taking responsibility. Children need to be asked questions. From an early age, parents often avoid even labelling sexual parts. From an early age, children should become comfortable with the names of all their body parts and become comfortably knowledgeable about body part similarities and differences between boys and girls (Gordon, 1983; Honig, 1978).

As children approach puberty, adults need to talk with them honestly about hormones, emotions and sexual feelings. Schools need to develop honest and matter-of-fact courses on human relationships that include sexuality topics. Such courses can become a vehicle for helping to decrease the rate of adolescent unwanted pregnancies. In these classes, respect for each person’s private parts and personal decisions would be emphasized along with specific information about sexuality and pregnancy. Yet many adolescents are far from being able to engage in formal reasoning about their sexual lives and urges or their social interactions. They spend hours on tweets sending frequent text messages. Teens males struggle to adjust to the sexual changes in their bodies as the voice deepens, hair grows near the genitals and sexual fantasies and interest in sexual ventures pervade thoughts daily. They can show off and take risks, both physical and sexual, that lead to distressing, dangerous, even fatal, consequences. And yet teens still believe that they are invulnerable. They drink and then drive fast without believing that they would ever be killed in a car crash. Teens assume that sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies are something that happens to others but not to them. They feel invincible and invulnerable.

Heavy drinking can lead to teen pregnancy. Teachers in a health course for teens need to explain clearly how different the brain is when a teen drink heavily. Weekend drinking contests are frequent for some teens. The teenage brain seems to be less reactive to alcohol’s short-term effects. Yet, for teens, alcohol impairs the memory system in the hippocampus and severely limits the ability of the frontal lobes to carry out thoughtful and logical thinking. ‘Without mature frontal lobes, young people are less able to weigh negatives consequences and inhibit impulsive behavior like binge drinking. Binge drinking can lead to unsafe sex and unwanted pregnancy’ (Paturel, 2011/12, pp. 24 and 26).

Teens also need clear and specific understandings of how the reproductive system works. Every teaching can be done in a climate where teachers do not speak either for or against premarital sex but do present knowledge that every concerned and responsible citizen should know. Teachers need to answer questions about masturbation honestly.

Teen fatherhood is rarely discussed. Many adolescent fathers do not stay with the teen mother. This leads to an aching void in the lives of many children who feel the longing for a father’s nurturing presence (Honig, 2010).Nurturing, affectionate relationships between very young children and their special adults provide an inner sense of positive self-worth (Honig, 2002). Children who have been tenderly cared for and had their distress signals promptly and accurately attended to during the early years are then less likely as teens to be vulnerable to pressures for unwanted/ unsafe sex. Secure early attachments to parents and other special adults protect children against later feelings that lead them desperately to seek ‘love’ from casual sexual encounters that may result in pregnancy.

Teens need to feel loved just as much as younger children.The growth of a trusting relationship with open communication between children and parents makes it easier for a child to share worries about pressures for early sex or unwelcome behaviors by others.Teenagers who have open communication with their parents are more likely to delay the onset of sexual activity, more likely to use birth control, and to have fewer sexual partners (National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 2003).

In summary, the hard work effort to prevent and decrease teen pregnancy needs to be multifaceted. This work is the responsibility of families, of schools, and of community agencies. Changes in media emphasis on sexuality may not be feasible. But teachers can be in the vanguard of awakening teen understanding of the power of television, Facebook, Twitter, and other electronic communication modes. Students can role play creative communication techniques that could keep them safe in dating relationships. They can learn specifics about body functions and contraception in biology and health classes. Invite teens to think about personal future and the ways they could work toward those career goals better if they are prudent about teen pregnancy. In one intervention project, teen mothers who realized that they did not want their babies to suffer the same inappropriate parenting as they had experienced in childhood, were able to become more nurturing toward their own infants. Reflectivity helps (Brophy-Herb & Honig, 1999c)

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