Teen Pregnancy Awareness Essay

Teen Pregnancy Awareness Teen pregnancy is not unusual or taboo as it once was but the impact and changes it causes in young lives remain everlasting. Too young to understand the consequences and responsibilities with becoming a parent, teenage girls learn the hard way that it is difficult to take care of oneself and a baby. Parents and schools play a big role in educating our youth about safe sex and contraceptives. Three main areas that lack awareness in teen pregnancy are young mothers not finishing school, not being concerned about their health and the effects on the economy. This causes a ripple effect trickling down the issue from young mothers and their families to the entire nation (Sheen 9). First, school dropout rates of teen mothers are tremendous when compared to their peers who do not get pregnant. Therefore, young mothers also have a higher chance of living in poverty, turning to public assistance and are likely to suffer from bad health. Only fifty one percent of teen mothers complete high school and earn their diploma, compared to eighty nine percent of young girls who are not …show more content…
Young mothers encounter medical issues such as low weight gain, anemia, sexually transmitted diseases and cephalopelvic disproportion [a condition in which a baby is too big to fit through its mother’s pelvis for a natural birth] (Frick 30). Also teen mother’s typically do not seek prenatal medical attention exposing their babies to low birth weight, which in turn can cause health problems such as cerebral palsy, deafness, respiratory issues and death (March of Dimes 1). Even more, low birth weight in babies can lead to future disabilities such as dyslexia or hyperactivity (Frick 31). A large majority of teen mothers fail to obtain proper prenatal care because they simply do not know they are pregnant, they do not have the money to get medical care or fear of their parents finding