Teenage Pregnancy
Teen pregnancy is something that affects over one million young teens in the United States. In the summer of July 1989, I became part of that statistic. I was only fourteen years of age when I learned, I was expecting my first child. For some, teen pregnancy is planned, and this would be my case. It wasn’t due to lack of knowledge, experimentation or the desire to be with multiple partners. No, it was simply out of spite. I thought, I was mature enough to take care of a child. So I took no precautions to prevent my pregnancy. Some teen pregnancy is caused by lack of guidance from their parents or guardians. They choose to be blind to the fact their sons or daughters are sexually active and possibly will have unprotected sex. …show more content…
I choose the natural method to breastfeed, instead of formula. At the direction my physicians and reading much literature, I found this was the healthiest form of nutrition for my baby. When I would speak to other teen mothers, they shied away from breastfeeding because it took too much time and effort. I read that only an average of 24% of mothers under the age of 20 choose to nurse and opted to bottle feed their child instead. Well, just because I was a young mother that certainly didn’t mean I didn’t want the best for my child. However, wanting the best and being able to provide the best, I quickly found to be challenging. There was the matter of daycare for my daughter while attending school; clothing, diapers, appropriate sleeping accommodations and the list goes on. How was I to provide all these things and more? Thankfully, my father and stepmother were my support system. While they never condone my action, they however understood it wasn’t my daughter’s fault her mother, ‘me’, was immature and very much unprepared. The agreement was, I would continue my education and during the summer months I’d worked part-time to take care of my
Teen pregnancy is something that affects over one million young teens in the United States. In the summer of July 1989, I became part of that statistic. I was only fourteen years of age when I learned, I was expecting my first child. For some, teen pregnancy is planned, and this would be my case. It wasn’t due to lack of knowledge, experimentation or the desire to be with multiple partners. No, it was simply out of spite. I thought, I was mature enough to take care of a child. So I took no precautions to prevent my pregnancy. Some teen pregnancy is caused by lack of guidance from their parents or guardians. They choose to be blind to the fact their sons or daughters are sexually active and possibly will have unprotected sex. …show more content…
I choose the natural method to breastfeed, instead of formula. At the direction my physicians and reading much literature, I found this was the healthiest form of nutrition for my baby. When I would speak to other teen mothers, they shied away from breastfeeding because it took too much time and effort. I read that only an average of 24% of mothers under the age of 20 choose to nurse and opted to bottle feed their child instead. Well, just because I was a young mother that certainly didn’t mean I didn’t want the best for my child. However, wanting the best and being able to provide the best, I quickly found to be challenging. There was the matter of daycare for my daughter while attending school; clothing, diapers, appropriate sleeping accommodations and the list goes on. How was I to provide all these things and more? Thankfully, my father and stepmother were my support system. While they never condone my action, they however understood it wasn’t my daughter’s fault her mother, ‘me’, was immature and very much unprepared. The agreement was, I would continue my education and during the summer months I’d worked part-time to take care of my