One of the things that everyone experiences, when they reach the teenage years, is puberty. It is the time when the child’s body starting to become mature and experience changes such as having a menstrual period for the girls and a boy who can ejaculate at a young age. These are the factors to become a girl pregnant. When a girl gets pregnant between the age of 15 to 19, she will be considered as a teenage mom. Teenage pregnancy is not a joke. It is a decision that can kill a person’s dreams and prone their life in danger.
They will be forced to stop going to school because they have to take responsibility for the baby they are carrying inside their wombs. Instead, they now have to find a job to support and get the needs of their baby. They have their choice to abort the baby, but that is not the best option as it is a sin from the heavens above. Also, teenage pregnancy is risky as both lives of the mother and the baby are in danger. However, it has many ways on how to prevent it. Teenage pregnancy is a serious health problem that can affect the lives of both the teenage mother and the baby, which can be reduced by having a strong relationship with the parents, getting sex education, and using birth control.
Teenagers who become pregnant between the age of 15 to 19 are considered to part of teenage pregnancy. However, their age is not appropriate to carry a child because their body are still on the process of puberty and becoming an adult. It can lead to a serious health problems such as having anemia or high blood pressure for teenage moms. Most likely, babies can be born premature and have low birth weight. These conditions can be prevented if the parents think of the ways to prevent unplanned pregnancy.
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One of the ways to prevent teenage pregnancy is by having a good communication between the parents and their children. Communicating with parents is a foundation to build a stronger relationship between their children or teenagers. They are already parents, and they have experienced everything especially when the topic is about sex. According to Julie Baumgardner, a host of JulieB TV, a YouTube-based talk show that talks about any relational things, there is much parents can do to reduce the risk of their children becoming pregnant before they became adults. One of the tips that she talked about from her article “10 Tips for Parents: Teen Pregnancy Prevention” is to discourage early dating.
Having a group of friends for teenagers is fun, but allowing them to start or dive into an early dating can lead to trouble. They can think of doing some things that are beyond the limits when there are no adults or parents watching them. Another tip from Baumgardner is to let their children know that education is the most important thing to focus on during their teenage life. Checking their children’s progress at school and giving them some rewards can motivate them to study harder. School failure can be ended up with hanging out with friends often and lead to teenage pregnancy. According to committee Bliss Kaneshiro, MD, MPH, and committee liaison Jacqueline E. Darroch, Ph.D, sixty percent of adolescent mothers do not graduate from high school, and only 2% complete college by the age of 30 years (2). No parents would like that scenario to happen to their children.
Moreover, there are still a lot of ways parents can do to prevent their teenagers from becoming pregnant. Likewise, supporting their children to whatever they want, knowing who their friends are, spending time together, be open up with their problems, and more. Baumgardner said that it is never too late to improve a relationship between the parents and their children. No matter what age their children are, parents will always have the responsibility to protect and guide them as they are growing up.
Another way to prevent teenage pregnancy is by getting sex education. When people hear these two words, they might think of learning how to put a condom or watching some sex scenes from the movies, but that is not the point after all. Based on Hannah Sokoloff-Rubin’s article, “Young people deserve sex education,” sex education enables young people to engage in healthy relationships and gives them the opportunity to practice good communication skills before becoming sexually active. It is essential for students who are in middle school, high school, and even in college because this is the time when students learn more about their bodies.
Sokoloff-Rubin added that she is one of the facilitators of Teen Council, a program that trains high school students to deliver sex education to their peers and facilitate access to healthcare services. It is more effective to train young people as they are going to listen to their peers rather than adults. Having this kind of program can enhance young people’s knowledge about sex and learn more about it as early as high school. Based on her article, she shows that the members of this program are making a positive impact on their communities, their peers, their schools, and their families. It enables them to have an accurate education to make healthy decisions about their bodies, relationships, and their future.
Lastly, the best way to prevent teenage pregnancy is by using birth control or contraception. According to committee Bliss Kaneshiro, MD, MPH, and committee liaison Jacqueline E. Darroch, Ph.D., who are part of Committee Opinion developed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ Committee on Adolescent Health Care, teenage pregnancy decreased largely because young people are becoming more effective contraceptive users in the year 2015 (1). According to their article “Adolescent Pregnancy, Contraception, and Sexual Activity,” there are some contraceptive methods that young people can use to prevent early pregnancy.
It includes combined hormonal contraceptives contain estrogen and progestin and include OCPs, the patch, and the ring. They added that oral contraceptive pills are a popular method among adolescents with 54% of sexually active 15 to 19 year olds reporting that they used this method (4). However, not all of these methods are easy to use. It adverse some effects such as dysmenorrhea, benign breast disease, iron deficiency, anemia, acne, and menstrual irregularity. With this, some of them discontinue using combined hormonal contraceptives. However, based on committee Kaneshiro and committee Darroch, the most effective contraception is condom use because it decreases the risk of STI and unwanted pregnancy (5). Additionally, condoms can be bought in retail stores or pharmacies without a doctor’s prescription so young people can get ready access to it.
Teenage pregnancy has different ways on how to prevent it. For the parents, it is their responsibility to help their children be aware of the possible consequences to happen when they reach their teenage years in their life. They also take the responsibility to protect and have a closer relationship with their children as they grow up. It is also necessary for teenagers to get educated with sex to gain more knowledge about their bodies, relationships, and their future. Furthermore, learning the right use of birth control or contraception such as condoms and hormonal contraceptives is advisable to prevent unplanned pregnancy.
This issue of teenage pregnancy prevention will help people be aware of the possible ways to prevent teenage pregnancy. With this, it can also solve the problem of preventing health conditions such as anemia among teenage moms and being premature among newborn babies. Overall, teenage pregnancy should be prevented to reduce the increasing health risks for both the mother and the baby by having a closer relationship with the family, getting accurate sex education, and proper use of birth control.
References
- CDC – Teen Pregnancy
- Planned Parenthood – Preventing Pregnancy & STDs
- Mayo Clinic – Teen Pregnancy
- National Center for Biotechnology Information – Teenage pregnancy and social disadvantage: systematic review integrating controlled trials and qualitative studies
- KidsHealth – Preventing Pregnancy
- Women’s Health Magazine – How to Handle a Teen Pregnancy: Advice From Experts and Moms Who’ve Been There
