Bradford 1 Courtney Bradford Matt Jones Sociology 101 December 1, 2009 Teen Pregnancy You sit there tense,

your face is turning cherry red, your eyes are fixed on the little white machine, and you feel like the suspense is killing you, two minutes seem like forever. All of a sudden you see a +. Youre fifteen and pregnant. What are you going to do now? Teen pregnancy is one of the most difficult experiences a young person might ever face when it interrupts school or other plans. It can create an emotional crisis resulting in feeling ashamed and scared, and it may appear that you will crumble under pressure in your environment. Education, abstinence, and parental involvement are vital in reducing the rate of teen pregnancy. The best way to prevent teenage pregnancy, which is 100 percent effective, is abstinence. Most teenagers have their whole life ahead of them and having a child will cause a lot of complications in their goals. Its not impossible for teenage mothers to complete high school, or try to reach their goals in life, but having a child could very well interfere with those goals. Abstinence is when you give up something you desire or of pleasure to you. Abstaining from sexual activities is a great way to prevent teen pregnancy, and the risk of getting a disease. In the past years less sex and more condoms use has meant lower rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Abstinence is not a crime, as most teenagers and their peers seem to think. Most teens have sex because of their peers being sexually active. The percentage of

Bradford 2 sexually active males declined from 57.4 percent to 48.8 percent, essentially erasing the gender gap. In high school students alone the rate for being sexually active went from being 66.7 percent to 60.9 percent in the years of 1991-1997. Abstinence is very important, but the peers your child hangs around are just as important. Teenage pregnancy is a major concern in todays society; there are many ways to prevent teen pregnancy, many people to get advice from, and many decisions that a teen parent must take. How to prevent teen pregnancy has been a question for many years now. Statistics have been running wild trying to keep up with the teenage generation. Many people have their opinions on the subject (teen pregnancy), because teens seem to be getting pregnant all so fast these days. People fail to realize that having a baby is supposed to be sort of a privilege. Many people take having a baby as a joke. Getting pregnant and having a child involves many pros/cons. For example having a child can be harder on some people than it is on others. When having a baby there are a lot of things to worry about, for the most important part financial problems seem to be the most talked about of teen pregnancies. The risk of teen pregnancy, engaging in sexual activities-especially intercourse-demands a high level of responsibility. Teenagers may be biologically mature enough to conceive, but many are not emotionally secure enough to appreciate the consequences of their actions. There are nearly 1 million U.S. teen pregnancies in the United States each year, most of them are unplanned. For young women of all racial and ethnic categories, weak families and low income sharply increase the likelihood of becoming sexually active and having an unplanned child. To make matters worse, having unplanned children raises the risk that young women (as well as young fathers-to-be) will not finish school and will live in poverty.

Bradford 3 Continuing education is also a major decision when you become a teenage parent. Pregnant teenagers have the right to finish their education. It may be hard, but it is not impossible. In some schools they stay in their regular classes, but in others they are placed in special classes for pregnant teenagers. These classes can be helpful because they help parents learn about pregnancy, prenatal childcare, and parenting skills. Some schools even have childcare. This would help out a lot of teenage parents trying to finish their education. It is important for teenage parents to complete high school. A lot of jobs require high school diplomas. How can teenagers support their baby with no job? The statistics show that teenagers who dropout usually qualify for the lowest-paying jobs in the community, if even that. That is why having an education will help out a teenage mother or father, having a high school diploma enables them to have more career choices. Babies born to teenagers are at risk for neglect and abuse because their young mothers are uncertain about their roles and may be frustrated by the constant demands of caretaking. Adult parents can help prevent teenage pregnancy through open communication and by guidance to their children about sexuality, contraception, and the risks and responsibilities of intimate relationships and pregnancy. Some teenage girls drop out of school to have their babies and dont return. In this way, pregnant teens lose the opportunity to learn skills necessary for employment and self survival as adults. School classes in family life and sexual education, as well as clinics providing reproductive information and birth control to young people, can also help to prevent an unwanted pregnancy. If pregnancy occurs, teenagers and their families deserve honest and sensitive counseling about options available to them, from abortion to adoption. Parents and family are another alternative in giving the teen the best support that they need. There are a lot of teenagers that are afraid of their parents reactions. However, most

Bradford 4 parents are calmer and more supportive than teenagers expect. Most parents are shocked when the teenager comes and tells them they are pregnant. Just give the parents time and they will try to give their teenager the best advice that they know. Never just neglect your child, because everyone makes mistakes and the best thing to do is make sure the teenager learns from it the first time. Jessica Inhoff, a junior at Grant High School, tells what she did when she found out she was pregnant with her son last year. She said that she was overly surprised and didnt know what to do. She didnt want to be there when her parents found out, so she left a note on the table and went to work. Luckily for her, her parents were remarkably supportive, and still help her out as much as they can with her son. Her mother watches Kyle every day while she is at school, and will baby-sit one night a week, so Jessica can go out and still be a kid. Teenagers in these years are getting pregnant for a variety of reasons. Some want the attention that a baby will bring to themfrom 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. Reducing the rate of teen pregnancy is no easy task and it will take the work of the teens, parents, and school officials to help lower the pregnancy rate. Abstinence is still the best solution to avoid this problem altogether. Sports programs, after school activities, and weekend projects can help occupy teens that might otherwise face the temptations of sexual pressure. Before you become sexually active think of the consequences you face and the financial issues you bring forward to your family. Teen pregnancy isnt just it; there are many problems such as STDs, AIDS, and HIV that you can conceive. All these factors are associated with having sex. If you sexually active get on some kind of birth control and always use a condom.

Bradford 5 Think about the consequences you as a teenager would have to face if you risk getting pregnant. Think about the consequences it would put a baby through. Its tough to be a teenage parent and people will have to sacrifice a lot of things that they used to do now that theres a baby with you. Just remember, dont start having sex just because everybody else is or because someones pressuring you into it. Be smart about the things that you as a teenager are confronted with and tackle them to the best of your abilities. Think about everything, including your future, school, friends, freedom, and your life.

Bradford 6 Works Cited Garfinkel, Irwin, and Sara S. McLanahan. Single Mothers and Their Children: A New American Dilemma. Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute, 1986. Haag, Pamela. Voices of a Generation: Teenage Girls on Sex, School, and Self. Washington, D.C.: American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, 1999. Jayson, Sharon. Teen birth rates in 26 states. USA Today. 2009. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-01-07-teenbirths_N.htm. Macionis, John J. Society: The Basics, Ninth Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2007. Potts, Malcolm, and Pouru Bhiwandiwala. Birth Control: An International Assessment. Baltimore, Maryland: University Park Press, 1979. Swierzewski, Stanley J. III, M.D. Overview, Consequences of Teenage Pregnancy. Teen Pregnancy. Nov 01, 2000. http://www.womenshealthchannel.com/teenpregnancy/index.shtml. When Children Have Children. When Children Have Children. http://www.teenpregnancy.com/teenage/when-children-have-children.html.