Teen pregnancy is always unexpected, and can often ruin a young girl or boy's life. The mother often doesn't know how she's going to raise the baby, if she's going to have to quit school, if the father is going to help her, or if her baby will be born healthy. These are just a few of the things that run through the distraught mother's mind. Teen pregnancies date all of the way back to the time of the Civil War, but it was not as far common back then, as it is today. .
Teens, both girls and boys feel that they have no one to talk to when it comes to sex, not even their own parents. During Sex Education in schools, abstinence has been taught, whereas those who choose to participate in sex should be properly taught the right methods of using condoms and birth control. Abstinence is the right choice due to teens are eliminating themselves from the risk of pregnancy and getting STD's, but abstinence is not the choice that all teens are going to make. So for those teens who do participate in having sex, have not been highly educated on safe sex, and the results often end in pregnancy.
Although over the last ten years, teen pregnancy rates have gone down, it is by far not as low as it needs to be. The teen parents don't think about the short and long term consequences when it comes to having babies, until it is too late. They will no longer be able to go "hang" with their friends, they will be stuck at home watching the baby, or working to buy diapers, clothes and food for the baby. In some cases, teen mothers are forced to drop out of school, and 36% of the mothers never go back to school after the baby is born because they are working to provide for their child.
Because teen's bodies are not made to bear a child, 9.5% of teen births result in low birth babies, while 14% miscarry. This low birth weight babies are put at a higher risk of developing complications or disabilities, or even end in death.
