Children of Children: Teenage Pregnancy and its Consequences Essay

Submitted By Amnah75
Words: 2669
Pages: 11

Children of Children:
Teenage Pregnancy and its Consequences
"After a long journey of suffering, Janine returned to the family, but she wasn’t alone! She came with a child who needs a lot of support with his mother. Janine was 15 years old when she became sexually active with her boyfriend Paul. Soon afterward, they began to fight a lot when poor Janine felt she was losing him. Janine thought if she got pregnant she would be able to repair their failing relationship. She had always loved babies and had been employed as a babysitter for the last few years. unfortunately she ends up by moving out of her parents’ house, applying for welfare and she never finished school." In fact, there are many similar sad stories we could hear every day, yet this is the best scenario for such cases. Teenagers are getting pregnant for a variety of reasons. Some want the attention that a baby will bring to them--from friends, parents, and boyfriends, as well as from the baby itself. For others, pregnancy is an accident or is caused by lack of knowledge about birth control. Moreover, in the past getting pregnant before marriage was forbidden for many reason including the religion one. The rate at which U.S. teenagers were having sex rose steadily through the 1970s and 1980s, fueling a sharp rise in teen pregnancies and births. That trend reversed around 1991 because of AIDS, changing social mores about sex and other factors, including greater use of contraceptives, which pushed the U.S. teen pregnancy rate to historic lows. The U.S. rates still remained higher than those in other industrialized countries. The decline in teen sexual activity had leveled off starting years ago, and the teen birth rate began to increase in 2005. It wasn't known before if the increase was due to more pregnancies or fewer abortions and miscarriages. For the first time, the new analysis uses those factors in calculating the teen pregnancy rate. Teen pregnancy has long been one of the most pressing social issues and has triggered intense political debate over sex education, particularly whether the federal government should fund programs that encourage abstinence until marriage or focus on birth control. But the teens want to have sex ignoring that it could end up with parenting, which is a big responsibility teen are not ready for. In such cases the abortion is the only solution a teen could think of, when some religious people consider the adoption as another. Both solutions leave a lifelong sad infliction on the teen’s life. The consequences are often grave. The issue of teenage pregnancy and parenting has been the subject of much debate over the past two decades, with politicians, researchers and the media in general voicing deep-seated concerns about the consequences of teen parenting for both mothers and children. For children born of children, chances of low birth weight and prematurity are high. So are instances of parental abuse, poor health, neglect and poverty. The majority of teenage mothers also face a bleak future. Often forced to drop out of school, these young women face a life of diminished expectations. However, we all believe that unexpected pregnancy could miss up the teen’s future plan and stress up their families. And everybody is agreeing that it is better if they delay having children until they became dependents and having stable life. Although it is true that teenagers drop out of high school for many reasons, it may still a good idea to prevent the teenage pregnancy because life could be difficult and it carry extra health risks to the mother and the baby. In fact, teen mothers and fathers are less likely to earn a high school diploma. A significant number of pregnant teens drop out of school, which can have consequences for both the mom and her baby. According to The Boston Globe, thousands of teens drop out of school each year. Many of those who drop out are pregnant or adolescent parents. For these pregnant and parenting teens,