Question:
Discuss about the Teenage Pregnancy.
Teenage parents, who get pregnant at an early age often, get little support and often it is encountered with stereotyping that all mothers at this category are failures. According to Seleni organization for teenage pregnancy, the focus of preventing teenage pregnancy has turned teen’s mums into the sate of being at cautionary tales and scapegoats to be used when in reality, they need a lot of support and comfort. The most common misconception often misunderstood is teen’s mums being irresponsible, however according to a Kenyan Florida mum of 7 year old kid, argues that they often have jobs but they take care of their children while dealing with day care activities of the child. Marely Moronta-Santos, of New York, who became a mother age of 16 years, argues that teen mothers ought to be respected as they have a lot to nurture young bright and talented kids just like the rest of mothers. Teenagers who often fall pregnant have been found to face many pregnancy related challenges. However risk and susceptibility is increased for those below the age of fifteen years as they are unable to sustain healthy pregnancy state. Among girls aged 15-19 years, complications often arises with increased risks of socio economic factors which have a factor in biological significance such as low birth weight, premature labour, anaemia and disease states such as pre-eclampsia. According to Yasmin McMorrin aged 26 who has a 7 year old daughter, argues that they require support from all forms, which is characterised by being non-judgemental and feeling empathy from those surrounding them
Diagram 1: Teenage Pregnancy
Adolescent pregnancy has always been associated with issues like social issues, educational levels, poverty score and other negative outcomes. At times teenage pregnancy has always found its way into outside marriages and has significance on the social stigma; however when they combine with malnutrition, poor health state occurs causing medical issues. However when combined, educational levels and intervention promotion of birth control; pills have an effect in reducing teenage pregnancies.
Teenage mothers are less likely to finish high school thus limiting their ability to get employed which often pushes them to live in poverty as they are more likely to live life of dependence and assistance. The children have often been put at risk to and suffer health disadvantages; they suffer in poverty and often drop out of schools and become teen parents.
Teen pregnancy has been shown to have an impact on high school completion among girls. It contributes significantly to high dropout cases. According to NCSL organization, 30% of teenage girls have high rate of drop out due to parenthood as their primary concern. 40% of those pregnant after the age of 18 years finish high school. Education factor has also intergenerational impact in that it implicates the children as well. Children born to mothers who are often underage does not perform well later in school, (Online, 2012). Poverty levels have consequences of teen pregnancy .low educational levels have shown to affect the economic avenues and later earnings in future. Thus economic consequences of discontinuing in school, is often associated with the cycle of poverty cycle. Incompletion of teen mums, have impacts later on their earning capacity as they cannot get high paying jobs.
Diagram 2: Factors of Teenage pregnancy
Pregnancy under the age of 18 years has significant consequences. It leads to violation of girl’s rights, sexual and reproductive services and significant high costs of sustaining form families. Health consequences have been attributed to violation of rights and high effects in terms of sexual and reproductive health. These risks include not being ready for pregnancy and child birth which often leads to complications and malnutrition issues which affect the majority of adolescent girls. Also often observable is the risk for maternal deaths among those aged below the age of twelve which occur in low and middle and income states. This statistic has shown that they have higher proportions of women in the mid twenties, (Hofferth, Reid & Mott, 2001). The consequences of negative health include the inability to be physically ready for pregnancy bearing state. The teen pregnancy has tremendous effects on the girl’s education process, which often alters girl child significantly. In most of the cases this has forced them to drop form school which eventually threatens them on their future opportunities and other prospering effects, (Stepp, 2009).
The impact of socioeconomic and psychological impacts of pregnancy and parenthood among teens is significant. The consequence it causes on health for girls below the age of 15 years forces them to drop out of school which definitely affects their future opportunities. Varying factors which characterises this group of children include poverty, social support and other parameters. One of the observable factors has been that the teenage parenthood relies on community support and family help which increases chances of fostering their education and getting themselves good living standards.
A more comprehensive approach is needed to tackle teenage pregnancy, which entails that they be focused on addressing the underlying reasons which affects factors like poverty, gender and inequality issues. This model should be able to target age specific learning objectives, which gives comprehensive approach to sexual education through avenues such as investing in their education, preventing child marriages and offering sexual education. The need for building equitable societies of fair share of responsibilities is enticing as a basic platform for ensuring that young adolescents have access to sexual and reproductive knowledge and health services which enables them to solve their social and financial economic issues, (Online, 2017).
As a young mother, education is often affected which leads to drop in out of school. Studies have indicated that many mothers often drop out of school after becoming pregnant. Young mothers in the industrialized states have shown that teens who give birth during their adolescent stage often have completed secondary school. Young mothers among the adolescents, often affects the employment and social class. The relationship between early pregnancy period and lack of completing high school often leads to reduced career opportunities later in life, (Coley et al., 1998).
According to research by National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, has shown that 1 in 4 teen mothers often encounters another pregnancy within the first two years of the first’s pregnancy, (Cornelius et al., 2008). Often the association of pregnancy and giving birth has shown that it contributes immensely to them dropping out of school. Studies shows that many terms often don’t have the intellectual knowledge and the needed maturity levels that is to foster positive life thereafter and give room for other babies.
Lack and the inadequacy of prenatal care for teenage pregnancy and often expose their babies to dangerous outcomes later, (Cornelius et al., 2008). Factors which often lead to these factors include the mothers having closed spaced births, which the association has been observed that the likelihood decreases the education levels of the women who often get married, (Gibbs, Wendt, Peters and Hogue, 2012).
The consequences of early childhood can affect the psychological development of the small infants. The children of the adolescent of the teen girls has shown that they are more likely to be born having underdeveloped and mature which exposes them to encounter other lifelong conditions such as diseases, (Raatikainen et al., 2005). The intellectual capability is often undermined among the children, this associated with development disabilities and behavioural factors among the teens. Research done has shown that teen mothers are less likely enhance and offer stimulating effects on the mother through affectionate behaviours which involve action such as touch, smile response and verbal relation, (Tamkins, 2004).
Poor academic performance among children of teenage mothers has also been noted. Many children born of teenage mother’s often repeat grade level, which shows that their scoring ability is compromised. Also further daughters born from th6e teenage mothers are more likely to become teen mothers themselves, while sons are more likely at three times more to serve time in prison, (Quiley et al., 2003).
Both issues of maternal and prenatal health are often encountered and is of critical point on teens who become pregnant. The incidence of premature birth and low birth weight often encountered is elevated among the adolescent mothers. Research has shown that teens are less likely to receive prenatal care and end up getting them in their third trimester. Young mother who receive good state of health often have healthy babies. Health issues often associated with teenage pregnancy and have limited access to adequate health care, (Banenrjee et al., 2009).
Often many pregnant teens are at great risk of getting nutritional deficiencies which often occur from poor eating habits at their adolescence, which include losing weight. Inadequate nutrition and dieting often leads to increased risk of HIV contraction which leads to higher elevation of HIV related incidences which scoring globally according to World Health Organization.
Increased risks of medical complications have been associated with teenage pregnancy among the under 15, which often occurs below the pelvis, and is associated with difficulties in child birth. Factors such as obstructed labour in underdeveloped countries can lead to complication such as eclampsia, fistula, infant mortality, (Spedial et al., 2008).
Diagram 3: Diagrammatic representation on risks factors
Many underage girls are not aware of birth control and how to deal with them when encountered. This leads to compromising situations of economical adequacy which pushes the young girls to work in order to earn a living. This has always pushed them to accept sexual advances which lead them to teenage pregnancy, (Depalma & Francis, 2014).
The influence family set ups are, have been found to have effect on early childhood pregnancy. In families with teenage girls who are pregnant, has found out that they are more likely not to influence the relevance of education and employment and are often likely to accept human, sexual behaviour, parenting and marriage issues. Also brothers had significant influence to be more tolerant to non marital issues as to pertaining to pregnancy issues. The relationship of pregnancy and the family kinship shows that it is 2 in five if the elder sister or brother is having marital affair issues while at the teenage phase, (Chandra et al., 2013)
Sexuality or sex at first’s debut has significant influence and is observed before the age of 20th birthday, (Else Quest et al., 2014). Males in the developed countries have sex much earlier compared to native and conservative countries such as those in sub Saharan Africa and Asia, (Shaeer, 2013). Factors such as peer pressure have been shown to have influence on motivating this engagement. Increased levels of sexual activity among the adolescent are manifested with increased teenage pregnancies and high levels of sexually transmitted diseases.
Early puberty among the teenagers have played a contributively role in pregnancy related issues. Girls who have early maturity rate are at high risks of engaging on sexual intercourse at tender age, which often puts them at increased risk of teenage pregnancy, (Sartor et al., 2013). Lack of adequate contraception and the low levels of conventional methods have presented a huge challenge in teenage pregnancy rates globally. Many young women often think contraceptive in the context of condoms and pills. They fail to understand that other relevant methods which offer protection against pregnancies. Contraception is used but has shown to be inadequate, as those who are inexperienced often forget to take oral contraceptives.
Girls who are engaged in abusive relationships are more likely to get pregnant. The knowledge of the pregnancy to the boyfriend has shown to have high escalation in the incidences of quarrels. This unstable relationships, which often culminate to violence has been associated with the socio economic status. Countries like Niger and Bangladesh have high incidences of teenage mothers compared to economically stable countries like Japan, (Linders & Bogard, 2014). In a country like UK, half of the encountered pregnancies are more concentrated among 30%-35% of the most deprived state. In Italy the birth rate has been identified at 3.3 per 1000 population, while in the United States it is 2 per 1000.
Conclusion
With this view, it shows that teenage pregnancy is far much from over. Even the developing countries are also encountering these incidences. There is a lot to be done across the world in order to manage these rates. It is clear that teenage pregnancy is still entrenched in our cultural society and values, which at times have been eroded or indigenous. With all these, the health of the young girls, whose bright life’s are often jeopardized at greater risks. Thus more aggressive and collaborative approaches need to be implemented and initiated to curb these issues.
References
“American Teens’ Sexual and Reproductive Health”. Guttmacher Institute. 2016-06-01. Retrieved 2017-07-26.
Banerjee B, Pandey G, Dutt D, Sengupta B, Mondal M, Deb S (2009). “Teenage pregnancy: A socially inflicted health hazard”. Indian Journal of Community Medicine. 34 (3): 227–231. PMC 2800903?. PMID 20049301. doi:10.4103/0970-0218.55289
Chandra-Mouli, V., Camacho, A. V., & Michaud, P. A. (2013). WHO guidelines on preventing early pregnancy and poor reproductive outcomes among adolescents in developing countries. Journal of Adolescent Health, 52(5), 517-522.
Coley RL, Chase-Lansdale PL (1998). “Adolescent pregnancy and parenthood. Recent evidence and future directions”. The American Psychologist. 53 (2): 152–166. PMID 9491745. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.53.2.152
Cornelius MD, Goldschmidt L, Willford JA, Leech SL, Larkby C, Day NL (2008). “Body Size and Intelligence in 6-year-olds: Are Offspring of Teenage Mothers at Risk?”. Maternal and Child Health Journal. 13 (6): 847–856. PMC 2759844?. PMID 18683038. doi:10.1007/s10995-008-0399-0
DePalma, R., & Francis, D. A. (2014). The gendered nature of South African teachers’ discourse on sex education. Health Education Research, 29(4), 624-632.
Else-Quest, N. M. (2014). Robust but plastic: Gender differences in emotional responses to sexual debut. The Journal of Sex Research, 51(4), 473-476.
Gibbs, CM.; Wendt, A.; Peters, S.; Hogue, CJ. (Jul 2012). “The impact of early age at first childbirth on maternal and infant health.”. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol. 26 Suppl 1: 259–84. PMID 22742615. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3016.2012.01290
Hofferth SL, Reid L, Mott FL (2001). “The effects of early childbearing on schooling over time”. Family Planning Perspectives. 33 (6): 259–267. PMID 11804435. doi:10.2307/3030193
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Linders, A., & Bogard, C. (2014). Teenage pregnancy as a social problem: A comparison of Sweden and the United States. In International handbook of adolescent pregnancy (pp. 147-157). Springer US.
Quigley, Ann (2003) Father’s Absence Increases Daughter’s Risk of Teen Pregnancy Health Behavior News Service
Sartor, C. E., Waldron, M., Duncan, A. E., Grant, J. D., McCutcheon, V. V., Nelson, E. C., … & Heath, A. C. (2013). Childhood sexual abuse and early substance use in adolescent girls: the role of familial influences. Addiction, 108(5), 993-1000.
Shaeer, O. (2013). The global online sexuality survey (GOSS): The United States of America in 2011 Chapter III—Premature ejaculation among English?speaking male Internet users. The journal of sexual medicine, 10(7), 1882-1888.
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Stepp, G. (2009) Teen Pregnancy: The Tangled Web. vision.org
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