Teenage Pregnancy (Essay Sample)

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Teenage pregnancy
A teenager is a young person who is within 13-19 years of age. The reason as to why they are so called is because their age number ends with the teen. Usage alternates by ordinary persons and also in different societies. Many societies had the formal ceremony that is traditional to mark the change from childhood stage to adulthood. During adolescence, rapid physical and mental changes or development occurs. Puberty is the name for this change from childhood to adulthood. In other countries, the younger teenagers go to middle school whereas the teenagers of 15 through 18 go to high school.
Pregnancy is also termed as gestation or gravidity. This is the time in which one or more offspring is developing inside a woman. Involvement of more than one offspring that are called twins is termed as multiple pregnancies. It can occur through assisted technology or by sexual intercourse. Pregnancy normally lasts for 40 weeks starting from the last menstrual period, and this ends during childbirth.
Teenage pregnancy is a pregnancy that occurs in human females that are below the age of 20 at the time it will end. A young girl can acquire this pregnancy through sexual intercourse after the ovulation begins which can be before her menarche, but it usually occurs after her period’s onset. In girls who are well nourished, their menarche usually occurs at around the age of 12 or 13.Teenagers that gets pregnant normally face the same obstetric issues that also occur in other women. However, there is an additional medical concern for girls who are pregnant whose age is under 15 years and are less likely to have been physically developed to sustain a safe pregnancy or give birth. In the mothers who are aged between 15 to 19, they are associated with socioeconomic factors than the effects of age biologically. Premature labor, low birth weight, and preeclampsia are risks that are connected to the biological age itself. It was observed in teenagers births after controlling for the other risk factors that include the use of antenatal care, etc. in developing countries every day, 20,000 girls who are under the age of 18 give birth. This sum up to 7.3 million births annually. And if one includes all the pregnancies, the number of puberty pregnancies is much higher.
In first world countries, these teenage pregnancies are often associated with social issues that include higher poverty rates, lower levels of education and other children life outcomes of adolescent mothers. Teenage pregnancies in these developed countries typically occur outside marriage, and it comes with social stigma in many cultures and communities. By observation, parents who are teenagers in developing countries are married, and families and societies welcome their pregnancies. In these societies, however, early pregnancies may combine with malnutrition and healthcare that is weak to bring about medical problems. Comprehensive sex education can help to prevent teenage pregnancies and birth control. Abstinence-only sex education peers not to be effective.
The mothers age is determined by the date that is easily verified when the pregnancy comes to an end, not by estimating the conception date. Similarly, the statistics do not include the pregnancies that started in women aged nine if they did not end until or after the 20th birthday of a woman. Moreover, statistics on the marital status of the mother are determined by whether she is married at the pregnancy end, not the conception time. A pregnancy according to United Nations population fund shows that, among the girls below the age of 18 years, they may face the consequences that are irreparable. It brings the violation of the girl’s rights, with consequences that are life threatening in term of sexual and reproductive health, and shows the high cost of development for communities, more so in perpetuating the poverty life circle.
Health consequence includes not being physically for pregnancy and childbirth leading to malnutrition and complication as many of adolescent tend to originate from the households with lower income. Maternal death risks for girls under five years of age in countries with middle income is much higher than for women who are in the twenties. Girl’s education is also affected by teenage pregnancy and revenue potential is also affected as many are forced to leave school that ultimately affects the future opportunities and prospects of economic.
Several types of research have tested the medical, socioeconomic and physiological impact of pregnancy and parenthood in the teenagers. The outcome of the teenager’s mothers and their children alternate; other factors such as social support or poverty may be of more importance than the mother’s age at birth. A lot of solutions to deal with the more negative results have been proposed. Parent teenagers who depend on the family and the community support childcare support and social service are more likely to proceed with their learning and get jobs that are highly paying as they continue with their studies.
An approach that is holistic is required to deal with teenage pregnancy. This means not keenly looking on changing the girls behavior but addressing the reasons that are underlying for adolescence pregnancy that are like gender, poverty, social pressure, coercion, and inequality. This approach should include, giving the comprehensive age-appropriate sexual education for all the young people, preventing child marriage, social violence, and oppression, investing in girl’s education, building gender equitable societies. This is done by empowering girls and engaging men and boys and making sure that adolescent access to reproductive health information and sex as well as service that facilitate their choice and welcome them.
Education in the first world countries is affected by being a young mother. Teenage mothers are likely to drop out of high school. However, studies have recently found out that many of these mothers had dropped out of schools already before becoming pregnant, but those who are still in school at the time in which they become pregnant were likely to graduate as their peers. One of the studies in the year 2001 resulted that women who deliver in their teen stage completed schooling secondary level 10-12% as often and carried on with their post-secondary education14-29%as women who stayed until the age of 30. In an industrialization country, young motherhood can bring an effect to social class and employment. Less than one-third of the mothers who are teens get any form of child support, vastly rising the likelihood of asking the government for assistance. The relationship between bearing the child early and inability to complete high school reduced the career opportunities for most of the young women. One study discovered that, in the year 1988, 60% of the teen mothers were poor at the time of childbearing.
The additional research found that nearly half of the adolescent mothers looked for social assistance within the first five years of their offspring’s life. A study of 100 mothers who are teenaged in the United Kingdom showed that only 11% get the salary while the other remaining were unemployed. Poverty is lived by most British teenage mothers, with nearly 50% of the bottom fifth of the distribution of income. Women teenagers who are pregnant or already mothers are more likely seven times to commit suicide than the rest of the teenagers. Professor John Ermisch at the institute of economic research found comparing teenage mothers with the other girls with the same social, economic backgrounds, low educational inspiration, and bad school experience, the difference in their changes in life chances was negligible.
Teenage motherhood actually may make sense of economic for young women with few amount of money as some research suggests it. For instance, Duke University did some long-term studies and came out with results that by the age of 35 years. Mothers who were formerly teens had earned more income and paid a lot of income were less likely to live substantially in poverty collected small in assistance of the public than the same poor women who stayed until the age of 20s to bear children. Women who mother the children at their early teen stage are freed of their duties to raise children at their late 20s and early 30s to do employment. While the more unfortunate women who waited to be moms were still at home watching their young children tied up paying a lot in taxes than they had earlier collected in welfare. Earlier eight years, the federally commissioned report the kids having kids also had the same results though it died: those who bear the children at their adolescent stage are far much better than those who do the same at their late stage when it comes to economic welfare.
Teenage pregnancies have come p with stereotypes in which the girls are getting pregnant at their teens are viewed as irresponsible persons, and they are sometimes called bad children by their parents. Although careless decisions might have been made by these girls, it does not mean that they are necessarily careless. Therefore, it seems unfair to call them such names since they walk around feeling ashamed. This is because; there are also out there amazing parents who are teens and are very responsible for their actions and ought to be respected as other parents.
Additionally, another thing that comes into mind is the emotional factors faced by the teenage girls regarding pregnancy. It has been known that what goes through their minds are not good thoughts for that matter due to the unplanned pregnancy. In most cases, there seems to be depression, fear, and frustration in which it may lead to other evil thoughts such as contemplating on committing suicide. In such situations,...