Welcome to Pregnancy Guide
Opinion Pregnancy Teenage 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.
Protecting Yourself and Your Baby - Teen Pregnancy and Health Risks
from:Teen pregnancy and health risks to both mother and infant are unfortunately closely related. In general, infants born to adolescent mothers are at a higher risk of accidental injury and poisoning, complications of prematurity, learning disabilities and cognitive problems, minor acute infections, sudden infant death syndrome. Also, rates of premature birth and low birth weight are higher among teenage mothers.
Teen pregnancy and health risks go hand in hand in girls 14 years old and younger because of an underdeveloped pelvis which can lead to difficulties in the childbirth process. In industrialized nations, this situation can be resolved with a Cesarean section. In developing nations, however, which have high rates of adolescent pregnancy, medical services are scarce and problems during childbirth can lead to eclampsia, obstetric fistula, infant mortality, or maternal death.
Another reason that teen pregnancy and health risks are closely associated is due to lack of knowledge of proper behavior; pregnant adolescents tend to have very poor eating habits, do not take vitamins and may smoke, drink and do drugs while they are pregnant, and this may lead to their baby being born with health problems or being stillborn. Statistics show that teenagers are also less likely to be of adequate pre-pregnancy weight, which increases the risk of having a baby with low birth weight.
Looking at some statistics regarding teen pregnancy and health risks, in 2002, 9.6% of 15-19 year old mothers had a baby of low birth weight, while only 7.8% of mothers of any age had babies that weighed less than 5.5 pounds. For pregnant adolescents that are younger, the risk is even greater; 11.3% of mothers aged 15 had a low birth weight baby. These underweight babies may have organs that are not fully developed, which can lead to things like respiratory distress syndrome, bleeding in the brain, blindness, and intestinal problems.
Furthermore, the relationship between teen pregnancy and health risks is dependent on the fact that pregnant adolescents often do not receive early and regular prenatal care, putting both the mother and the baby at risk. In 2002, 6.6 percent of 15-19 year-old mothers got late or no prenatal care; this is in comparison with 3.6% of all age groups. This is even more serious because an adolescent mother is at a greater risk for pregnancy complications such as anemia and high blood pressure, and these risks are even greater for adolescents under 15 years of age. Adolescents in this young age group are more than twice as likely to die of pregnancy complications as mothers between the ages of 20 to 24.
Out of 12 million cases annually, 3 million are the teens affected by sexually transmitted diseases. If the mother is affected by an STD, these can cause serious health risks to her child as well; syphilis can cause death of the infant, besides causing blindness and death of the mother, and HIV can be fatal to both mother and child.
Warning: file(http://www.searchfeed.com/rd/feed/TextFeed.jsp?trackID=Q3835304521&pID=62408&cat=opinion+pregnancy+teenage&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
Opinion Pregnancy Teenage Specific links
Opinion Pregnancy Teenage News
Whether or not MTV's Teen Mom series glamorizes teen pregnancy depends on dads - Houston Chronicle (blog)
 Houston Chronicle (blog) | Whether or not MTV's Teen Mom series glamorizes teen pregnancy depends on dads Houston Chronicle (blog) Or teen mom playing with her cute little baby? Commenters on MomHouston's recaps MTV's “Teen Mom” and “16 and Pregnant” series can be divided into two camps: those who believe the show glamorizes teen pregnancy and those who believe the show is a ... |
Opinion: Haven't solved teen pregnancy yet - Newsday
 Newsday | Opinion: Haven't solved teen pregnancy yet Newsday OpEd Newsday > Opinion > OpEd Print Aa Opinion: Haven't solved teen pregnancy yet Published: May 15, 2012 6:57 PM By VINCENT GUILAMO-RAMOS. AND MOLLY SKINNER-DAY Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its newest estimates ... |
Give teens better options than pregnancy - The Dominion Post
 The Dominion Post | Give teens better options than pregnancy The Dominion Post TAKE THE MONEY: Teens in poor areas need better options than pregnancy and the benefit. OPINION: In 1968, when Paul Erlich published The Population Bomb, it was widely predicted that the world's population would one day reach 16 billion. |
God bless religious freedom - The News Herald
God bless religious freedom The News Herald I just as readily suspect that Christian teens are far less likely to experience clitorectomies, or be killed to preserve family honor if they become pregnant out of wedlock. Cayce also asked what Sharia law had to do with a previous opinion letters on ... |
Kids raising kids: Teen birth rate in county going down, but remains high - Yakima Herald-Republic
 Yakima Herald-Republic | Kids raising kids: Teen birth rate in county going down, but remains high Yakima Herald-Republic Recent national studies credit strong pregnancy prevention campaigns aimed at teens with the decline, along with increased use of contraception. But locally, educators and providers say they don't know exactly what's keeping the numbers high. |
More to teen motherhood than contraception - Stuff.co.nz
More to teen motherhood than contraception Stuff.co.nz OPINION: If price is not a major issue and at-risk women are ambivalent about either pregnancy or unmarried motherhood, then initiatives such as sex education and improved access to contraception are not likely to make a difference. |
Get real over contraception - The Press
Get real over contraception The Press Here's another thing wrong with the plan - the males who get teenage girls pregnant because they find not using contraception to be so much more fun. Feckless from the start, they will never pay for their children's upkeep; I will, along with other ... |