Teenage pregnancies are one of the worst nightmares that parents with daughters dread most. While motherhood should be considered a blessing, teenagers are not ready and prepared to form families. The United States has one of the highest numbers of documented cases of teenage pregnancies compared to the rest of the world. Every year, an estimated 750,000 teenagers become pregnant around the United States with majority of them resulting in live births. Patel PH, Sen B (2006) found that teenage births increased between 2005 and 2006 from 40.5 t0 41.9 per 1000 births.
Teenage pregnancies have a lot of unwanted outcomes. Generally, teen mothers have poor health with most of them suffering from depressive disorders at some point in their lives after giving birth. Besides health, teenage pregnancies result in negative implications on the economy. In 2006, the public aid that was given to teenage mothers amounted in excess of 4.3 billion dollars (Patel & Sen, 2012). This is a very huge amount especially because the teenage mothers make very little contribution to the national economy. They have poor education outcomes due to interruption of their studies with resulting poor economic outcomes as well as underemployment.
In order to be able to stem out this unwanted practice, it is important to understand the root cause of the problem. Poor socioeconomic status, family and psychological factors as well as illiteracy stand out for blame. Schools need not only teach academics, but also life as a whole. The curriculum should include basic lessons of counseling aimed at increasing morality in the society. Families also have a very big role to play. Generally, teenage pregnancies are more common in families with prior history of teen pregnancies. Mothers need to openly discuss sex and its implications with their teenage daughters; insisting on the importance of abstinence or use of protection. The health care systems need to create more awareness on the availability of free and convenient family planning methods to teenagers presenting in health facilities.
References
Patel PH, Sen B., (2012). Teen motherhood and long-term health consequences. PubMed.
