By: Abigail Gomez
As a teenage girl at the age of 16, you are usually thinking about what you're going to wear for school or asking yourself whether you did your homework or not. Just imagine life at the age of 16, carrying a child in your womb.
Realizing you might be pregnant could be very hard for someone to deal with. You’d want to recall how you got to this very point in the first place. Did you use the proper necessities to prevent this from happening?
According to an article called, “The high-cost early motherhood; Fertility,” birth control may be too expensive for high school students. This is bad since teens may not be able to afford methods that can prevent pregnancy.
Teens could talk to their parents or a grown adult about wanting birth control, but this could be very hard. When parents hear their kids wanting sexual relationships, they wouldn’t understand. Parents believe that their kids are too young to be having sex.
When teenage girls don’t ask for birth control methods, such as condoms, IUD, birth control pills, etc.They will mostly become pregnant.
Some high schools might offer a clinic or sex education classes. These resources can help upcoming teen mothers. The clinic could help you to find programs to help with any money struggles like WIC. WIC is a program which provides food for new moms. This program is super helpful because it gives free food once a month for troubled mothers.
Clinics could also be helpful because you could ask a grown adult for help when trying to tell your parents about the situation.
One of the main struggles a teen mom could go through is telling their parents. This could be hard because parents might see it as a sign of betrayal resulting in them being kicked them out.
When talking to a teen mom who is currently 5 months pregnant, who I’ll be referring to as Brenda, I asked her about how her parents took it. “They weren’t happy, but they were going to make sure we have everything you need,” she explained. Brenda went through many struggles but she was thankful that this wasn’t a struggle for her.
Another struggle that most teens can face is still going to school while conceived. This could be very hard for them if they want to keep being pregnant a secret and don’t want others talking about them. This can make the teen mom depressed and lose their focus in school. This would result in the teen mom wanting to drop out of school.
Education could be difficult because of the living person growing inside of them. According to an article called “Post Card: Teen Pregnancy Affects Graduation Rates,” only forty percent of teen moms finish high school and about fifty percent have to repeat a grade.
This is a real struggle because sometimes they have to work. When it’s time for the baby to come, they’d have to take time off of school or work.
For Brenda's case, she decided to be homeschool once she found out she was pregnant. When talking to Brenda about school, she said, “I made the decision to not be at school when I started showing and isn’t because I was embarrassed but just because I want to be able to show my stomach without getting judged or talk about.”
Being a teen mom could be a challenge because some are single teen moms with no co-parent. Since they are still teens, the father of the baby could easily back out and never really take ownership of his actions. A study in an article named “11 Facts about Teen Dads” shows that about eight out of ten fathers don’t marry the mother of their child.
On the other hand, some teens do stay with their loved ones. In Brenda’s case, she is still with the father of her child. “This will be a challenge for us and I hope that everything works out for us and our child,” Brenda shared.
Once Brenda found out she was pregnant she tried her best to take care of herself which meant she went to many doctor appointments. Going to doctor appointments can be difficult for teen moms because they may not have insurance.
The cost of doctor's appointments could be very expensive. Doctor appointments are important because they show you how the baby is doing and how far they have grown. These appointments also show you the gender of the baby. The cost of these appointments is up to $200-300 dollars which could be a lot for teen moms, considering the lack of jobs they might or might not have.
Brenda says, “I know it is going to be expensive but I just know when I see my baby it will be worth it in the end.”
Even though Brenda got pregnant she knows that something will be different and some things will change. Something that may differ is her future. Brenda states, “It will change dramatically because I want to make sure my baby will have everything he needs but for my career-wise, it won’t.”
Teen pregnancy could be very hard, especially for young women who are barely coming into adult age. Remember that you are never alone and that you can ask for help with resources such as clinics, sex education, and more.
As a teenage girl at the age of 16, you are usually thinking about what you're going to wear for school or asking yourself whether you did your homework or not. Just imagine life at the age of 16, carrying a child in your womb.
Realizing you might be pregnant could be very hard for someone to deal with. You’d want to recall how you got to this very point in the first place. Did you use the proper necessities to prevent this from happening?
According to an article called, “The high-cost early motherhood; Fertility,” birth control may be too expensive for high school students. This is bad since teens may not be able to afford methods that can prevent pregnancy.
Teens could talk to their parents or a grown adult about wanting birth control, but this could be very hard. When parents hear their kids wanting sexual relationships, they wouldn’t understand. Parents believe that their kids are too young to be having sex.
When teenage girls don’t ask for birth control methods, such as condoms, IUD, birth control pills, etc.They will mostly become pregnant.
Some high schools might offer a clinic or sex education classes. These resources can help upcoming teen mothers. The clinic could help you to find programs to help with any money struggles like WIC. WIC is a program which provides food for new moms. This program is super helpful because it gives free food once a month for troubled mothers.
Clinics could also be helpful because you could ask a grown adult for help when trying to tell your parents about the situation.
One of the main struggles a teen mom could go through is telling their parents. This could be hard because parents might see it as a sign of betrayal resulting in them being kicked them out.
When talking to a teen mom who is currently 5 months pregnant, who I’ll be referring to as Brenda, I asked her about how her parents took it. “They weren’t happy, but they were going to make sure we have everything you need,” she explained. Brenda went through many struggles but she was thankful that this wasn’t a struggle for her.
Another struggle that most teens can face is still going to school while conceived. This could be very hard for them if they want to keep being pregnant a secret and don’t want others talking about them. This can make the teen mom depressed and lose their focus in school. This would result in the teen mom wanting to drop out of school.
Education could be difficult because of the living person growing inside of them. According to an article called “Post Card: Teen Pregnancy Affects Graduation Rates,” only forty percent of teen moms finish high school and about fifty percent have to repeat a grade.
This is a real struggle because sometimes they have to work. When it’s time for the baby to come, they’d have to take time off of school or work.
For Brenda's case, she decided to be homeschool once she found out she was pregnant. When talking to Brenda about school, she said, “I made the decision to not be at school when I started showing and isn’t because I was embarrassed but just because I want to be able to show my stomach without getting judged or talk about.”
Being a teen mom could be a challenge because some are single teen moms with no co-parent. Since they are still teens, the father of the baby could easily back out and never really take ownership of his actions. A study in an article named “11 Facts about Teen Dads” shows that about eight out of ten fathers don’t marry the mother of their child.
On the other hand, some teens do stay with their loved ones. In Brenda’s case, she is still with the father of her child. “This will be a challenge for us and I hope that everything works out for us and our child,” Brenda shared.
Once Brenda found out she was pregnant she tried her best to take care of herself which meant she went to many doctor appointments. Going to doctor appointments can be difficult for teen moms because they may not have insurance.
The cost of doctor's appointments could be very expensive. Doctor appointments are important because they show you how the baby is doing and how far they have grown. These appointments also show you the gender of the baby. The cost of these appointments is up to $200-300 dollars which could be a lot for teen moms, considering the lack of jobs they might or might not have.
Brenda says, “I know it is going to be expensive but I just know when I see my baby it will be worth it in the end.”
Even though Brenda got pregnant she knows that something will be different and some things will change. Something that may differ is her future. Brenda states, “It will change dramatically because I want to make sure my baby will have everything he needs but for my career-wise, it won’t.”
Teen pregnancy could be very hard, especially for young women who are barely coming into adult age. Remember that you are never alone and that you can ask for help with resources such as clinics, sex education, and more.