Welcome to Pregnancy Guide
Background On Teenage Pregnancy Article
. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for further reading, click here.
You may also listen to this article by using the following controls.
Society and Teenage Pregnancy in Jamaica
from:Rates of teenage pregnancy in Jamaica are among the highest in the Caribbean, with the birth rate for 15-19 year olds at 108 births per 1,000 women. Forty-five percent of all Jamaican women who are 15 to 24 years old have been pregnant by 19 years of age, and 41% have given birth. Females between the ages of 10 and 19 account for roughly 25% of all births in Jamaica and about 22% of births in 15-19 year-olds are second births.
There are a number of consequences to teenage pregnancy in Jamaica. First of all, the education of the adolescent mother is disrupted and often completely ended. Indeed, only 36% of teenage mothers complete more than four years of secondary school, compared to 50% of girls who never become pregnant. The mother, then, is severely limited in her job opportunities. Furthermore, parents and society in general will not look kindly upon a young girl who has engaged in sexual activity at a young age, and often a girl is disowned and must support herself and her child alone.
Teenage pregnancy in Jamaica also carries with it health risks to the mother and child, though doubts have been raised as to whether these risks may also be attributed to socio-economic factors. Statistics show that maternal mortality rate is 40% higher for mothers under 15 and 13% higher for mothers in their twenties. It is not only the teen mother who experiences health risks, but the child of the adolescent mother as well. Research points to the fact that the neo-natal death rate for babies born to adolescent girls is roughly three times higher than for babies born to adults.
Speaking of socio-economic factors, there are further health risks to the child due to the often precarious financial situation of the adolescent mother. Often, the mother passes long periods of time away from the child to try to find work or chooses to work extra hours to make enough money. This often leads to the mother stopping breast-feeding early and switching the child to foods which lack the essential nutrients found in breast milk; this leads to poor health and malnutrition among Jamaican children. The socio-economic situation of the Jamaican mother also often leads to child shifting, where a child is sent to live with other family members or other families, away from the mother. Studies have shown that 1 out of 5 Jamaican children did not live with either their mother or father; very often the shifted child will be placed in a negative environment.
What Jamaican society is beginning to realize is that the negative effects of teenage pregnancy in Jamaica are not felt solely by the adolescent mother or her child. The Jamaican economy suffers because of a poor labor force due to so many young girls being uneducated and because the resources of the country must be funneled into welfare programs for teenage mothers. Indeed, teenage pregnancy in Jamaica is obviously a complex and multi-faceted problem.
Warning: file(http://www.searchfeed.com/rd/feed/TextFeed.jsp?trackID=Q3835304521&pID=62408&cat=background+on+teenage+pregnancy&nl=5&page=1&excID=) [function.file]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
in /home/cwatchco/public_html/preparents/teenage/datas/searchfeed.php on line 8
Background On Teenage Pregnancy Specific links
Background On Teenage Pregnancy News
Viewers' family background affects how they react to MTV shows 16 and Pregnant ... - Phys.Org
 Houston Chronicle (blog) | Viewers' family background affects how they react to MTV shows 16 and Pregnant ... Phys.Org "On one hand, the programs do show many of the difficulties teen mothers face. But on the other hand, they sometimes seem to send the message that getting pregnant was all for the best. "The hypothesis driving our study was that the family background ... Whether or not MTV's Teen Mom series glamorizes teen pregnancy depends on dads Your Parents Have Everything to Do With How You Feel About MTV's Pregnant Teen ... |
Does TV Glamorize Teenage Pregnancy? - LiveScience.com
 ScienceBlog.com | Does TV Glamorize Teenage Pregnancy? LiveScience.com by LiveScience Staff A new study suggests that how TV shows about teenage pregnancy — like MTV's "16 and Pregnant" and "Teen Mom" — are interpreted by teenage girls depends on their family background. Critics of these shows suggest that they ... Viewers' family background affects how they react to MTV shows 16 and Pregnant ... |
Providing a Lifeline for Liberia's Teenage Mothers: A Former Teenage Mother ... - Liberian Daily Observer
Providing a Lifeline for Liberia's Teenage Mothers: A Former Teenage Mother ... Liberian Daily Observer “I am waging a war against ignorance, a war against abuse and a war against illiteracy to end rampant teenage pregnancy,” says Pauline passionately. In 1982, when Pauline became pregnant at the age of 18 right after graduating from high school, ... |
UMM student overcame teenage pregnancy, abusive marriage to reach graduation - Bangor Daily News
UMM student overcame teenage pregnancy, abusive marriage to reach graduation Bangor Daily News Shurn-Banks has a background filled with danger and disaster that could easily have derailed her education permanently, but she credits UMM's faculty and attitude of success for her personal accomplishments. As a child, Shurn-Banks watched as her ... |
Sex ed: Some experts fear adults are failing children - Bowling Green Daily News
Sex ed: Some experts fear adults are failing children Bowling Green Daily News Now, Kelsey pays attention to the number of teenagers who are pregnant or have children. Many girls her age want to be pregnant, she says. “It's out of control,” says Kelsey, a high school junior from Bowling Green. Kelsey's mother, Donna Seaman, ... |
Is Mackenzie Douthit Filming Teen Mom 3? - Wetpaint
Is Mackenzie Douthit Filming Teen Mom 3? Wetpaint A recent picture on Mackenzie's Facebook page shows a camera crew lurking in the background as she gets ready for prom — could this lucky lady be filming Teen Mom 3? 16 and Pregnant's Nikkole Paulen notes that one of the camerawomen shown in the pics ... |
Youngest mothers deserve our support - Irish Independent
Youngest mothers deserve our support Irish Independent Nobody wants to encourage teenagers to become pregnant and it is likely that this school's disapproval of teenage pregnancy was prompted by not wanting her to become a role model for others in the school, resulting in the controversial and much ... |