Teen pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy is pregnancy in a female under the age of 20. Teenage pregnancy is usually a crisis for the pregnant girl and her family.
Pregnant teenagers require special understanding, medical care, and education–particularly about nutrition, infections, substance abuse, and complications of pregnancy. They also need to learn that using tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs, can damage the developing fetus. All pregnant teenagers should have medical care beginning early in their pregnancy.
Complications with Teenage Pregnancy
Young women generally experience more complications during pregnancy and childbirth than older women. Pregnant teens and their unborn babies have unique medical risks that are discussed below:
- Physical immaturity
- Lack of knowledge about healthcare
- Poor care during the pregnancy
- Poor diet, including not enough folate
- High levels of emotional distress
- Premature baby
- Low-birth-weight baby
- High blood pressure
How to lower the health risks of teen pregnancy
- Get early prenatal care
- Stay away from alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes
- Take a prenatal vitamin every day to help prevent birth defects
- Ask for emotional support
- Access pregnancy counseling
Preventive measures
There are many ways to promote and prevent unintended teen pregnancies. The educational aspect of introducing abstinence, condoms and contraceptives is essential but incorporating participate activities, evaluations, decision making skills and more will lead to success. Promoting condom use along with birth control methods, and most importantly abstinence, will all truly contribute to preventing unintended pregnancies and a decline in abortion rates from sexually active teenagers.
Preventing a serious issue like teen pregnancy must be done at all costs. By informing teens early enough on condom use, contraceptive methods, and above all abstinence, we can aim for a possible extreme decline in teen birth rates. We must lead our teens to eliminate risks for their future and prevent the issue of teen pregnancy now.