Teenagers need to get back to basics

THE 2009 Washington Post, under its Worldview headlines, carried a story about a British boy whose girlfriend had just given birth to his daughter.
The caption, “…the sweet round face of the ‘baby father’ stares back from the newspaper pages” referred to a little boy, 13 years old, who looked more like eight.  He was a four-foot-tall father pictured on the hospital bed cuddling his newborn baby daughter, the child of his 15-year-old girlfriend. This publication sparked off a great debate, as the boy declared he was the father, and admitted that he did not know how much nappies cost. He was quoted as saying: “I think it’s a lot.” The writer declared that it was a moral dilemma which bred much debate.
Just around that time, too, I learnt of two teenage girls who were pregnant. Joanne, 15, and Nekesia, 16, both went back to school to pursue their careers. One is now in nursing school, while the other has gone into counselling and sharing her experience with young people.
Recently, while I was at the hairdresser’s, the nail technician was most distressed and was seeking advice as to whether she should ‘marry off’ her pregnant 15-year-old — a child who grew up with her father (an alcoholic), since the mother had four other siblings to care for.
On Tuesday, March 13, 2012, at precisely 8:00pm, I was returning home after my usual walk to the seawall when I noticed five children — two boys and three girls — between the ages of seven and 13, at the junction of Sheriff and David Streets, Campbellville. I had actually passed them when I turned back and asked them what they were doing out there so late.
I learnt that they were selling plantain chips.  I enquired about their parents. Apparently, they represented three different families. They each said that their mother was at home; two of them did not know who their father was, and the other child said hers was dead.
I could only advise them to start their selling early, so that they could get off the streets earlier, but considered this a very sad situation. I so wanted to meet with their parents; and even though I advised them to keep moving as a group, I did not know all the facts, but I could not help wondering if selling plantain chips at that hour of the night was the answer to any socio-economic problem or otherwise; and that if they continued like that, they would be able to elude the ills of society that were awaiting them.
In my view, children are not being allowed to be children nowadays; they are being forced into adulthood much too soon, and situations such as the lack of afternoon activities, inadequate  clubs and sporting facilities, sick economies which force  parents and guardians to work round-the-clock to get by provide a means for inadequate parental supervision, and contribute to teenage idleness — surefire recipes for teen pregnancy.
As I intensified my search for answers to this phenomenon, I was amazed to learn that there was an estimated one million teen pregnancies in the United States alone. About 85% of those pregnancies are unplanned, which, in any population, can increase the risk for problems; and that the biggest risk for teen mothers is delaying pre-natal care, or worse, 7.2% received no care at all, since most of them are afraid to ‘let the cat out of the bag’ for fear of rejection and/or abuse.
Another revelation was that most teenagers did not plan to get pregnant, but expressed an almost startling ignorance of sexual matters before becoming pregnant. One girl, for example, said she didn’t know what a condom was until she was 16, and certainly did not have a clue as to what a sexually transmitted disease was.
However we look at it, teenage pregnancy has a number of consequences. It can cause higher school dropout rates, which can lead to higher poverty rates, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
It falls to schools, therefore, to do a better job of providing sex education, and, equally importantly, instilling some goals that will help young people make the right choices. And while sex education should stress abstinence first, any realistic and effective effort must also teach how to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
But, should the entire burden to educate children be left to the educational institutions? What about the parents? I do not know what they tell their children today about sex and dating, but I know that in my day, when a girl reached puberty, she was told not to even let a boy touch her; and that she should not even speak to boys, for she would get pregnant.
The Church would not even let her sit next to a boy. Holding hands, petting and fondling were strictly prohibited, and the mere idea that people were watching you and taking note of your every move scared the wits out of some of us. So, we genuinely operated on the premise that we should stay clear of boys until we got married.
I am led to conclude that teen pregnancy is an important issue that leads to many health risks for the baby. Children born to teenage mothers are more likely to suffer health, social, and emotional problems. Also, women who become pregnant during their teens are at increased risk for complications, such as premature labour and socioeconomic consequences.
While facing the grim realities of teen pregnancy is not pleasant, this is not the picture that has to be painted. Teen mothers are perfectly capable of having a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. With the proper nutrition, early prenatal care, and good screening for potential problems, the majority of these potential problems would not come to light.
While some tend to think that you can’t teach a teen mother anything about her body or baby, it’s really a ridiculous notion. Many of the teen mothers who take active roles in their care do go on to have healthy babies, despite the other hardships that they will face in their lives.
I do not wish to encourage this trend of teenage pregnancies, but I feel that the re-integration of teenage mothers into the secondary schools’ system is commendable, since it gives the child who may have ‘made a mistake’ the opportunity to pursue a career, and enables her to make useful contributions to society.
Support from families, churches and communities is a must, if these new families are to be successful.

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