Teens and Pregnancy:

Teens are becoming pregnant today at rates that are on the rise and as a society we have to realize we are not helping the situation one bit!

Movies depicting teen pregnancy and teen stars having babies are a sign of the times. While many teens will view those Hollywood images as a lesson plan for what not to do, many just can’t see it – their hormones blind them too much.

There are many reasons for teen pregnancy. The usual situation is due to being impulsive and not planning ahead, combined with not having birth control. But, this week we learned that some teens may be getting pregnant on purpose. This week’s news of a “pregnancy pact” in Gloucester, MA, is troubling.

This town does not make available birth control in the school unless a parent agrees. That in and of itself deserves exploring, as it does in all our communities today. With 17 teen girls pregnant in this one town, we have to ask, would better birth control counseling and other community supports have made a difference? If teens have free access to birth control, would it have made a difference? Do teens need a frank lesson in what life as a teen parent would be life, in all our communities?! This is a new twist to an old lesson but clearly may be needed. The upcoming Baby Borrowers TV show on NBC is based on this exact issue.

On MSNBC, Greg Verga, chairman of the Gloucester School Committee states:

“But even if we had contraceptives, that pact shows that if they wanted to get pregnant, they will get pregnant. Whether we distribute contraceptives is irrelevant.”

What Mr. Verga is missing is that contraceptives mean nothing without education behind them. Teens don’t understand the burden of a baby. They are looking for the attention that having a baby creates in becoming pregnant and the baby showers and all that sort of stuff. They can’t predict the permanence and impact on their lives beyond that. Plus, making contraceptives available protects the rest of the teens who are trying to be responsible and stay safe. So, this reasoning doesn’t work for me.

The issue of a “pact” needs to be explored. Knowing how powerful peer pressure is, I can picture how such a pact would come to be. Teens enter into pacts for all sorts of things in their lives.

What this opens our eyes to is the need for adult involvement with teens at many levels. Parents need to be involved and the school needs to be involved. In a community where some teens may have difficult homes lives, the schools need to do more with social workers and work with State resources to make sure these teens have places to go after school. A good teen community program to help teens organize their time in jobs and activities would go a long way in building up the self-esteem of teens and help them stay out of trouble.

You’ve heard me say before that “a busy teen is a teen out of trouble”. This is a good example of the type of trouble teens can get into when not busy. But, teens need the right kind of busy with some mentoring and guidance. Self-esteem building does not occur overnight and teens who have had difficult home lives and troubles along the way may not be willing participants because they will have trouble trusting.

The Gloucester Superintendent definitely hit the nail on the head that these girls are lacking self-esteem and looking for love. Don’t think for a moment this can’t occur with our teens. Self-esteem and feeling un-loved can happen to any teen – their hormones make them crave attention and seek out approval.

There is nothing worse than seeing a baby in my office whose mom is barely older than my daughter – and needs her mom there to help out because she does not understand her own child’s needs. That is the reality. And, we have to do whatever it takes to stop that from increasing in numbers even more.

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