In 2005 more than 728,000 women under age 20 became pregnant. Nearly 28 percent aborted their pregnancies, more than 14 percent miscarried, and nearly 58 percent gave birth. Pregnancy affects the mother's body, her education and the life of her child's father. Each child is also affected by the development of his parents. The thing that doesn't change when parents are young are the needs of the child.
Prevention
In 2006, a half century after the introduction of the birth control pill, 82 percent of all pregnancies in women under age 20 were unintentional, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. When having a baby can be completely a matter of choice, this is confusing. But access to information and even contraception don't appear to be enough.
Nursing researchers at the University of Colorado in Denver, writing in the June 2009 edition of the Journal of Maternal Child Nursing, found that the majority of young women who become pregnant are choosing not to use contraception because they do not have a compelling reason to prevent pregnancy. There is nothing in their lives that they value enough to make them to practice contraception or refrain from sex. The author of this study, Jeanell Sheeder, R.N., MSN, concluded that interventions that empower goal formation, such as intensive pre-collegiate preparation or life coaching are the most effective ways to prevent teen pregnancy. .
Effects on Maternal Education
Imagine how valuable a vaccination would be if it could decrease the risk of a child being in poor health by 84.1 percent and lower the chance of children dying before age 1 by 50 percent. Parents would line up for this, and governments would make it mandatory.
We do have such an intervention--parents completing college before conception, according a report published in September 2009 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Based on data from the National Center for Health Statistics from 2007 and the National Health Interview Survey, the foundation found these percentages represented the difference between the health of children whose parents had earned a bachelor's degree before the child's birth and those who had not yet finished high school.
Unfortunately, some teens who become pregnant have already dropped out of high school, and only 50 percent of teen mothers attain their diplomas by age 22. This diminishes their chances of earning a college degree . This is increasingly important, because the U.S. Department of Labor predicts an increasing percentage of jobs will require collegiate education in coming decades.
Effect on Infant health
The March of Dimes reports that much of the damage to infant health that is attributed to a mother being under age 20 is actually associated with specific and preventable behaviors.
More than 17 percent of teen moms smoke, a choice associated with an increased risk of low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome. Sexually transmitted diseases are diagnosed in 9 million teenage girls every year, each with the capacity to harm a child before or after birth. One third of teenage girls are obese, according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted in 2008. Unhealthy weight with a body mass index above 25 is present in 50 percent of women before pregnancy and in an undetermined number of pregnant teens. It is a major risk factor for diabetes, miscarriage, premature labor and low birth weight according to studies reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Effects on a Child's Development
Children born to teen parents are at risk for educational failure, social instability and emotional disturbances according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry's 2004 Advisory.
Children of teen parents often lead more chaotic lives, with less durable family composition. They are likely to deal with a series of their mother's boyfriends and father's girlfriends, as only 20 percent of teen parents marry each other, and by the end of the child's first year, only 8 percent of parents are still married, according to the nonprofit Campaign for Our Children.
Paternal Effects
Male teens who are as young as the mothers are at risk of failure to complete high school, and those who are more than a few years older than the mothers may be charged with statutory rape and face registration as sex offenders, even thought the relationships were consensual.
Young dads are responsible for child support to the extent that they earn income. They have the right to child visitation and can petition for child custody and child support from the mother. If the mother relinquishes her maternal rights in an adoptive placement, the birth father can take sole custody.
References
- Guttmacher Organization: Statistics on Adolescent Pregnancy
- National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, of
- "Journal of Maternal Child Health"; Reasons for Ineffective Contraceptive Use Antedating Adolescent Pregnancies; Jeanell Sheeder, R.N., MSN et al; June 2009
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Education Matters for Health
- Gerogetown University: June 2010 Projections of Jobs and Educational Requirements through 2018
