Adolescent Pregnancy Is A Serious Social Problem

An opening

Global adolescent mortality rates have fallen from 65 deaths per 1000 females in 1990 to 47 deaths per 1000 in 2015. Despite all this progress, projections indicate that the global number of adolescent births will rise by 2030. This is due to the continued growth of the world’s population of adolescents.

Regional differences also reveal uneven progress: Adolescent birth rates vary from highs of 115 per 1000 West African women to lows of 64 per 1000 Latin American and Caribbean women to lows of 45 per 1000 South-Eastern Asian women to lows of 7 per 1000 Eastern Asia women. Adolescent pregnancies are up to three times higher in rural areas than urban areas.

Adolescent pregnancies can be a problem in any country, regardless of their income. Adolescent pregnancies tend to be more common in low-income communities. They are frequently caused by poverty and lack education.

Some adolescents want to have children and plan their pregnancy. Girls may be subject to social pressure to get married and have children. Around 15 million girls marry before they turn 18 years old, and 90% of girls ages 15-19 are born to married parents.

Intimate relationships

Adolescents are often denied contraceptives. They face restrictions based on age and marital status, the bias of health workers, financial limitations, and inability of adolescents to access contraceptives. Adolescents also face obstacles that prevent the use of contraception and/or consistent and accurate use, even when they can obtain them.

Adolescent girls may not be able or able to resist being forced to have sex. The majority of sexual violence against girls is experienced as adolescents and children. Unintended pregnancy risks are higher for girls who live in a world that supports violence against women and gender inequality.

Preventing adolescent pregnancies

Many young people are having sexual relations with others at a younger age. Social work and other social scientist have developed new ways of understanding teen pregnancy.

Sexuality is dynamic and encompasses more than just sexual orientation and sexual activity. It refers to what being male or female means to you and how you express your gender. It also covers how you feel about your body, about how it looks, and about how it feels. Our sexual behavior has a significant impact on our ability reproduce.

The fact that many of the mothers who kill or abandon their children are young makes it difficult to consider the wider issues of teen pregnancy, adolescent sexuality, and the impact of this on the lives of teenagers. The United States’ teenage pregnancy rate dropped nearly 30% between 1990s and now, according to the most recent data. However, teenage pregnancies are not common. The United States is home to the highest number of teenage pregnancy and births among the industrialized western world. Every year, 750,000 girls and boys between 15-19 years old get pregnant. Nearly one-third of these women will give birth to children and one-third will choose abortion.

One reason teens are having fewer pregnancies is the rise in contraceptive usage. In the 1970s and mid-1960s, contraception and abortion were more easily available. This broke the link between reproduction and sex.
Women could now choose to be parents or have sex for pleasure, just like men. A shift in sex education at schools was happening around the same period. Schools were now preparing students for parenthood and marriage, while disallowing premarital or intrasex sex. The first sex educators started to view marriage as one of many possible settings for sex. The concern over HIV/AIDS as well as the perceived crisis in teenage pregnancy led to a shift in focus on teaching young people about managing “risks of sex.”

Adolescent pregnancy is partly due to insufficient sex education by society, home, church, school, and health community. Knowledge and understanding are key to prevention. Sex education is a topic that people are sensitive to and often defensive. It is essential that children are educated at an early age about their bodies, attitudes, and the strong feelings they experience, especially during adolescence. Sexual feelings can be either good or bad. They are an essential part of our being.

Birth Control

The messages that people and institutions give teens about sexuality in America are mixed. These norms are focused on sexual behavior, such as sex, contraception and pregnancy. However, these sexuality standards can sometimes be contradictory internally. A practical argument might be, “Don’t have sexual activity, but use contraception.” The moral reasoning is just as contradictory. “Don’t get an abortion, but do not become a teenager parent,” it says. Metanorms concerning how to deal with teen parents can also be inconsistent. Teens should not shun or support them.

Even though sexuality norms sets may seem contradictory from an internal perspective, they still have social implications. People who break them will be subject to social sanctions. Interviewees revealed that teens are controlled by their families, friends, schools, communities, and schools. They also have the ability to enforce their own norms. The power teens have to enforce their norms is different, but young people feel the control and want to reach their goals without being punished.

The ideal contraceptive is 100% effective, free from all side effects and completely reversible. It would be affordable and readily available without any nursing or medical intervention. It is not yet possible to find such a contraceptive and most of the current methods require some compromise. For some couples, preventing pregnancy is not a primary concern. Some may prefer to use a more effective contraceptive with less side effects. Some contraception methods might not be compatible with religious or cultural beliefs.

As a long-standing tradition of controlling fertility, strong moral sentiments have been a part of the history. Legal constraints, religious beliefs, gender relations, as well as legal restrictions, have limited the provision and use of birth control advice. Victorian values, sexual prudishness and moral objections to contraception, as well as political gamesmanship, made it often difficult or impossible for women to access safe and effective contraception. Many women were unable to obtain safe and effective contraception because of their religious and moral convictions.

Teen pregnancy has health implications

Social exclusion is seen as both a cause of and a consequence of teenage parenthood. Teenage parents tend to be less employed, live in poverty, have low birth weight babies, and are at greater risk for childhood accidents. Teenage parents who are socially excluded are more likely to be poorer in health, to have less access to social support and to experience poorer outcomes for their children and themselves. Some teenagers see their pregnancy as fulfilling and positive, while others find negative consequences. Research has shown that young parents are more likely to experience negative outcomes and poorer health.

Adolescent pregnancies are considered risky in the medical and professional senses. There is no completion of the physical, mental, and personality growth. The risk of premature birth, abortion, gestation development, and fading growth is increased. These women are typically not monitored well because they often hide their pregnancies from the outside world.
This group is well-known for their high rates of sexually related, conditionally, and sexually transmitted diseases. Chlamydia tromatis, humanpapillomaviruses, Mycoplasma, Trichomonas vulginalis and Chlamydia seborrhea are the most prevalent infections. These infections increase the possibility of an unplanned pregnancy or an abortion. It is difficult for a young body to adjust to the new requirements of pregnancy. Due to its infancy, the uterus is not fully matured. This increases vulnerability to infection. The risk of gestational disease, which involves the development of blood vessels, can increase. This could lead to increased maternal and child risk. Sugar metabolism disorders can result from excessive sugar intake, which may lead to an immature baby’s rapid growth. A prematurely elevated skeletal burden can lead to permanent damage to the musculoskeletal structure. This can result in a pathology at birth that will require more operational terminations.

Early pregnancy poses many risks. Each day, more than 1,600 mothers worldwide die due to complications during pregnancy or childbirth. That is roughly four jumbo-jets that crash every day leaving no survivors. Mothers die in developing countries at least 99 percent of the time. Nearly half the deliveries in developing countries occur without the assistance of skilled professionals. Postnatal care is not provided for more than a third of all mothers, even though most maternal fatalities occur within the first few weeks after childbirth. Between 30 and 100 women die from complications of pregnancy or childbirth for every one that has died. The burden is disproportionately on teenage girls. In fact, eleven percent (15 million) of all births are to teenagers. In fact, girls between the ages of 15 and 19 are twice more likely to die in childbirth than those who are older. Five times as likely are girls younger than 15 to die in childbirth.

The global problem of maternal morbidity, and infant mortality in adolescence is a serious public health concern. Adolescents between 15 and 19 years old are twice as likely that they will die in childbirth, or during pregnancy, than are women aged over 20. However, adolescents younger than 15 years old are five times less likely to be killed during childbirth or during pregnancy. In developing countries, there are between 2.0-4.49 million and 3.0 million unsafe abortions every year. Adolescent mothers have a higher chance of having babies born at low birthweight who are at high risk for malnourishment, poor development, and other problems. Adolescent children are more likely to die from infant and child diseases than their mothers.

Adolescent pregnancies are a serious public and medical problem. Modern methods for prevention include education, warning, and information about contraception via schools, media, or the internet. It is important to make contraceptive methods more accessible, particularly hormones in pill form or patches.

Adolescent pregnancy has social consequences

Adolescent pregnancies can have negative socio-economic effects on girls, families, and communities. Parents and peers may stigmatize or reject unmarried adolescents who are pregnant. They might also be subject to violence threats and rejection. Girls who get pregnant before the age 18 are more vulnerable to experiencing violence in a relationship or marriage. If a girl believes that school-leaving is better than continuing her education or if she feels that pregnancy is the best option for her situation, then it can be an option. Some countries have between 5% and 33% of teenage girls who leave school because of pregnancy or marriage.

A lower education level may result in fewer job opportunities and skills. It is common for poverty to continue. Children marrying reduces girls’ future earnings by approximately 9%. This can also lead to economic costs, as countries may lose the annual income their young women earned if they did not have pregnancies early.

Life atmosphere and adolescent pregnancies

Policies and laws may create an environment that promotes and protects health, including sexual and reproductive health. However, they can also be barriers to young people’s access to education and healthcare services. This can have adverse effects for sexual health. It is crucial to create and implement policies that clearly define the rights of adolescents to continue education, regardless of their status as parents and/or pregnant. Policies that address parenting girls’ rights to return to school should also include financial support, such as cash transfers and child care. Budgets are required to ensure their implementation.
These policies should be implemented in national policies and within school policies. This includes efforts to inform and train pregnant and parenting teens, school principals/administrators, teachers and other school officials about the needs and concerns of parenting girls. The school should collect data to monitor compliance and the implementation of these policies.

Termination

Some say that abortion is a right of a woman to choose her body. Moralists may argue that abortion is equivalent of a deliberate refusal to conceive. Because contraception can be obtained easily, this should not stop moralists from judging actions. Some argue that even though the foetus is considered a person it doesn’t have any rights. They don’t weigh heavily against the interests and parents of children already born. If society is threatened by overpopulation, famine, or other serious issues, then the rights of the fetus might be outweighed by those of society as a whole. In these cases, abortion could be considered a positive act that should be encouraged.

An adult woman should not feel guilty about terminating her pregnancy. This is her right. The issue is how to handle an adolescent’s pregnancy and what rights a girl who is pregnant with an adolescent child has. Pregnant girl must ask the following questions:

– Continue to have a baby and continue to be pregnant

– Continue pregnancy and give birth to the baby for adoption

– Termination

Adults are capable of making complex decisions. They can use their mental energy to strategically allocate their mental resources towards completing their decision. This is crucial given the short time frame in which it takes to end a pregnancy. Much controversy surrounds adolescents’ cognitive abilities to make similar decisions. Counselors and therapists who work with adolescents to announce their pregnancy have a greater responsibility to ensure that they are capable of making difficult decisions. While there is a tendency to give adolescents limited legal rights in juvenile criminal cases adjudicating, it has not been the case with adolescent abortion cases. Minors must obtain permission from at least one parent, or be ready to justify their secrecy before going before a judge under a special bypass procedure. Psychologists may have testified to the fact that adolescents do not have the ability to make these decisions. But, the legal community supports parental notification. This case shows that scientific knowledge is not the only thing that matters to public policy.

In conclusion,

In developing countries, approximately 16 million teenage girls and 2.5 million under-16-year-old girls give birth every year. These are alarming numbers. Teenagers do not realize the consequences of having sexual relationships. These consequences can have devastating effects on your health. It is vital to invest heavily in reproductive health prevention. Preventing sexually transmitted diseases and pre-conception should not be the only goal of prevention. It should also be focused on promoting responsible sexual behavior. This refers to the delaying of the start of a sexual relationship for young people. Too soon can lead to serious health consequences.

Author

  • ameliaburke

    Amelia Burke is a 27yo educational blogger and volunteer and student. She is currently a student at the University of Utah. She is interested in creative writing, writing for the web, and public speaking.

ameliaburke

ameliaburke

Amelia Burke is a 27yo educational blogger and volunteer and student. She is currently a student at the University of Utah. She is interested in creative writing, writing for the web, and public speaking.

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