Teenage Pregnancy and Issues related with Teen Moms

Teen pregnancy is one such issue which is common to both the developing world and the developed industrialized countries. However, the reason for teen pregnancy is different in different cases. In developing countries of Asia and specially in Indian sub-continental countries (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal et all) teen pregnancies often occurs within married relationships as these countries still suffer social problems such as child marriages.

On the other hand, in industrialized countries such as the USA, UK, France, Italy or Switzerland, the main reason for teen pregnancy is high sexual involvements of teens in unmarried relationships.

The United States suffers with the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the developed world. Recently, at the occasion of the United States National Day for Prayers, MTV renewed its fourth season of Teen Mom, which is an initiative to spread awareness about the issues and problems related with teen moms in general.

According to the Center for Disease Control in the United States, one-third or 33% of American girls get pregnant before the age of 20.

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy maintains a website teenpregnancy.org to provide relevant information about the issues and according to the site, the United States faces "750,000 teen pregnancies annually. Eight in ten of these pregnancies are unintended and 81 percent are to unmarried teens."

Teen moms often suffer social stigmata and that increases the risk for babies born to teenage mothers. They faces major long lasting problems in many areas such as schooling failure, mental and physical illness and poverty.

Teen moms also suffer similar risks. Proper studies on teen moms reveal certain facts about teen pregnancy:

• Teen mothers often drop out of high school
• They often are and remain single parents
• Teen moms score lower in math, science and reading into adolescence

Teen pregnancy is often considered as a huge crisis for the pregnant girl along with her family. She often suffers anger, guilt, and denial. If the father of such child is also a teen, he also suffers similar reactions in his family.


However, in most of the cases, teen mothers are found to be engaged with elder men of age at least 6 or more years more than their own ages.


Adolescent moms often fail to attain proper medical care during pregnancy period and that increases the risks for medical complications. It is necessary to provide special understanding, education, and medical care along with information about nutrition, substance abuse, infections, and complications of pregnancy and delivery.

Teen moms should be taught about dangers of using tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs as this may damage the foetus in their womb. All pregnant teens should also be provided with medical care beginning right from their early pregnancy.

Often teen moms remain uncertain about their role and responsibilities for their child, as a result, babies of teenage mothers often suffer risk of neglect and abuse.

Teenage mothers often get frustrated because of the regular demand of caretaking for their child. Their frustration further increases because mostly they remain single parents.

Teen girls should be educated about contraception and their proper usage because education about contraceptives leads them to use contraception while having sex.


However, sex education and information about contraceptives doesn’t cause any negative effect by lowering the age at their first sexual activities.

How to Prevent Teen Pregnancies

Many teen girls remain excited about their sexual life and how to start it. If you are about to involve in a sexual relation, the best way is to attain all possible information about different types of contraceptives as the usage of proper contraceptive will reduce chances of unwanted pregnancy.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, 25 percent of young teens who have intercourse without a proper contraceptive are likely to become pregnant within a month.

Parents are required to get involved with their teen children and to discuss about sex and contraceptives.
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