Teenage Pregnancy InformationStudies have revealed that at least one in every three teenager in the US gets pregnant each year.
Teen pregnancy can be a very difficult issue to be tackled both emotionally and physically. Statistics show that teen pregnancies are a result of sexual activity either from a long term relationship or by rape. When a person under 18 years of age gets pregnant it is termed as teen pregnancy.
The first problem that a teen faces on finding out about the pregnancy is the inability to decide whether to keep the baby or to abort it. The second problem is to deal with the changes that the teen’s body goes through because of the growing baby.
Teenagers, in most cases do not identify pregnancy in time, and may continue to engage in unhealthy activities such as smoking and drinking alcohol and also follow an unhealthy lifestyle and eating habits. As a result, by the time they realize that they are pregnant, the growth of the baby is already affected.
A teenagers’ body is not fully developed and her uterus is not fully mature enough to support a pregnancy. Hence, the likelihood of having complications in the pregnancy is high. While these are the physical effects of a teen pregnancy, there are emotional effects as well.
When a teen becomes pregnant, she is unsure whether to be happy and excited or whether to feel sad and ashamed of her condition. As a result, the confused teenager may experience severe depression due to the fear of going against social norms.
Emotional stress during pregnancy can again have ill-effects on both the baby and the teen. As a result the teen’s education and career also suffers.
However, undergoing an abortion to
terminate the pregnancy is also not a good idea as an abortion can be quite stressful and can impose stress on the teen both physically and emotionally.
In some cases, the teen may plan to go ahead with the pregnancy and may decide to even get married. However, early marriages come with their own set of financial and emotional problems. Statistically speaking, most
teenage marriages do not last. An early marriage and pregnancy also affects the teenage parents’ success in the academic and professional fields. This is further compounded by the costs incurred in raising a child.
These are just some of the reasons why it is always better to have a child at the right age to avoid complications, both mental and physical.
Submitted by P T on June 26, 2010 at 07:01
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