pregnant teens...?

Question

i have suddenly come upona situation where i have a desperate need for the stories of pregnant teenagers... please help!

in response to michelle... I am sorry if my question offended you but i have this friend who is only 16 and this is upsetting... i am trying to tell her of other success stories, she doesnt think she'll survive

in response to MLF... My friend just said she needed some advice and didnt care where i got it- just to look for some anywhere. thanks for responding.

Answer 1

Well, I was 17 when I got pregnant with my first, 18 when I gave birth. I got pregnant shortly after with my second child. Their father and I have now been together for 4 years and are very much in love. I think we actually fell more in love each time when one of our daughters were born. I still finished school with a 4.0 GPA. We have both worked very hard to give our kids everything they want. We are getting married sometime next year and also looking at buying a house. I plan on getting my degree in nursing. Right now I work in automotive to pay my way through school. Things don't come immediately when you have a child at a young age, but they do come if you try. Good luck to your friend and it's a very sweet thing to do for sticking with her.

Answer 2

Well I just turned 20 not too long ago I have 2 kids. I have a little girl who will be 3 in January and I just had a baby girl Aug. 11th. My husband passed away when I was pregnant with my youngest so it's just me and the kids now! I am a CNA so I work full time 4 days a week and I take all of my classes online through the university so I am able to spend more time with my kids and still get a college degree like I planned.

Finish school, get a job to support your child, keep the same plans in life that you had before like college and everything will just be fine.. :)

Answer 3

I was 17 when I got pregnant with my oldest and 18 when I had her and her sister, no they're not twins, but they might as well be. My husband and I couldnt' imagine how we'd make it. But we did, I was already done with school and I never went without a job. I'm now 23 and in a great job with wonderful benefits and a promotion that is officially effective in Dec. along with a nice raise just in time for Christmas. It was never easy, and it's not easy now, but we did it. Most of the time it was me, just because I'm Mom and we had girls. Our girls are very bright and doing extremely well in school. We made it and so can she. She just has to realize it's not about her anymore it's about the baby, until that baby is grown, she doesn't get to come first very often. Good luck to her!

Answer 4

My friend (we'll call her Maria) was pregnant when she was 16. She was a very promising student, with straight A's, and she was aspiring to become an engineer. Then she met a boy, and fell in love with him, and decided that she would do whatever she had to do to keep him. He got her pregnant, and it went downhill for a little while. But she's surviving, and she's in college. If you'd like to hear more, just email me. I think there's a link under my profile.

Answer 5

My aunt's parents had my aunt when they were 13. My aunt is now a very successful woman with 2 great kids and a wonderful husband. Just goes to show you I guess that not all children born to teenage parents turn out bad. Good luck and God bless to you and your friend.

Answer 6

Well, my mom had me when she was 17. She was dating my dad and obviously, they slept together with the outcome of me. Her first plans were to give me up for adoption but then, she felt like she needed to keep me. My grandma and grandpa were...embarassed but they supported my mom and helped her through it. My dad wasn't there for my birth and he was only active in my life until I was about 3 until he moved away to Colorado. He came back into my life when I was 12 and it was the hardest transition. I didn't want him in my life because I had gone through life just fine without him and I hated him. He made threats to kill me when I wasn't even born and because I knew this...I hated him. If you're having a baby and you're a teen, you have to work this out with whoever the father is because I was so unhappy and depressed and I hurt my mom and stepdad so deeply with how I acted. I would hate to see you or anyone else in that situation. Plus, the child. It's a tough situation and it's not fun to be in.

Answer 7

And what is the purpose of these stories? I was a teen when I was pregnant (I am 24 now). And I have a story! But I need to know that it will be put to good use.

Answer 8

when i was at the hospital, they said there was a pregnant ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD!

Answer 9

Thanks for the clarification. Here is a bunch of information taken from the Macrh of Dimes. I hope it helps her to know that just because of the horror stories she has heard there are plenty of people who were teen mothers or are the product of a teen pregnancy. Original literature avail : http://www.marchofdimes.com/professionals/14332_1159.asp




Teens who already are pregnant can improve their chances of having a healthy baby by:
•Getting early and regular prenatal care from a health care provider or clinic.
•Eating a nutritious and balanced diet.
•Stopping smoking (and avoiding secondhand smoke). Smoking increases the risk of low birthweight, premature birth, stillbirth and pregnancy complications.
•Stopping drinking alcohol and/or using illicit drugs. Alcohol and drug use limits fetal growth and can cause birth defects.
•Avoiding all prescription and over-the-counter drugs (including herbal preparations), unless recommended by a health care provider who is aware of the pregnancy.








Teenage Pregnancy

High teen birth rates are an important concern because teen mothers and their babies face increased risks to their health, and their opportunities to build a future are diminished.
•About 11 percent of all U.S. births in 2002 were to teens (ages 15 to 19). The majority of teenage births (about 67 percent) are to girls ages 18 and 19.
•About 860,000 teenagers become pregnant each year, and about 425,000 give birth.
•About one in three teenagers becomes pregnant before age 20.
•The teenage birth rate is declining. Between 1991 and 2002, the rate fell by 30 percent (from 61.8 per 1,000 women to 43). Still, in 2002 (the most recent year for which data are available), about 4 teenage girls in 100 had a baby.
•About 17 percent of teen mothers go on to have a second baby within three years after the birth of their first baby.
•Teen mothers are more likely than mothers over age 20 to give birth prematurely (before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy). In 2002, the 7,315 girls under age 15 who gave birth were more than twice as likely to deliver prematurely than women ages 30 to 34 (21 vs. 9 percent) Babies born too soon face an increased risk of newborn health problems and even death, as well as lasting disabilities.

Teen Mother’s Health Affects Her Baby

•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 5½ pounds)
•Pregnant teens are more likely to smoke than pregnant women over age 25. In 2002, 13.4 percent of pregnant teens ages 15 to 17 and 18.2 percent of those ages 18 to 19 smoked, compared to 11.4 of all pregnant women.2 Smoking doubles a woman’s risk of having a low-birthweight baby, and also increases the risk of pregnancy complications, premature birth and stillbirth
•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)

Health Risks to the Baby
A baby born to a teenage mother is more at risk of certain serious problems than a baby born to an older mother.
•In 2002, 9.6 percent of mothers ages 15 to 19 years had a low-birthweight baby (under 5.5 pounds), compared to 7.8 percent for mothers of all ages. The risk is higher for younger mothers: 11.3 percent of 15-year-old mothers had a low-birthweight baby in 2002 (18,703 girls this age gave birth, and 2,112 had low birthweight babies), compared to 8.9 percent of women aged 19 (168,111 births, with 14,920 of low birthweight).2
•Low-birthweight babies may have organs that are not fully developed. This can lead to lung problems such as respiratory distress syndrome, or bleeding in the brain, vision loss and serious intestinal problems.
•Low-birthweight babies are more than 20 times as likely to die in their first year of life as normal-weight babies.

Other Consequences of Teenage Pregnancy

Life often is difficult for a teenage mother and her child.
•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 21.5
•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.5
•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 an unmarried teenage high school dropout is 10 times as likely as other children to be living in poverty at ages 8 to 12.6
•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.5

The March of Dimes
The mission of the March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects and infant mortality. Through programs of research, community services, education and advocacy, the March of Dimes continues its successful fight to save babies.

Because of the risks involved in teen pregnancy to both mother and child, the March of Dimes strongly urges teenage girls to delay childbearing. The March of Dimes also recommends that anyone who could become pregnant eat a healthy diet, manage their weight and quit smoking. We further recommend taking a multivitamin containing folic acid every day for their own health and to reduce the risk of having a baby with birth defects of the brain and spinal cord, should they become pregnant.