Teen Pregnancy Nursing - Term Paper Example

Great numbers of teen pregnancies are unintentional. Access to contraceptive, complete education on sexuality and youth development programs can assist teens to choose their options that can guard them from pregnancy at this age. Parents with a busy life are unable to discuss important issues such as sex with their children. Due to the lack of proper guidance, these teenagers are unable to make wise decisions on this subject and this result into teen pregnancy. According to the Journal of Adolescent Health, majority of the teens who indulge in sexual activity are more possibly exposed to sexuality in the media.

By glamorizing this, teenagers adapt this as something good and involves in irresponsible sexual activities. If it is something accepted in their group of friends or community, they may try to get pregnant as a means to get social acceptance (Laden et al 2006). A vast number of teenage girls who get pregnant have reported sexual abuse or rape. Sexual harassment leaves them in a state of shock and because of the fact that they have no idea how to proceed and avoid pregnancy many of them conceive.

The teens that are more likely to have unintended pregnancy are those who are not educated about sex. Kids who start drinking in their teens are more likely to take other risks as well. This may involve crimes, careless sex and other dangerous activities that may have consequences. According to ‘teenage pregnancy: the interaction of psyche and culture’ many of the women who became mothers in their teens didn’t want it. It had happened because of lack of knowledge about how babies were conceived or they didn’t know or have access to methods of avoiding or aborting their pregnancies (Dean et al 1997).

The socioeconomic factors which trigger teen pregnancies are poverty, illiteracy, and peer pressure. Early marriages are even a big factor resulting into this problem faced by young girls. These were some of the causes of teen pregnancy, now we would discuss its effects. There a lot of teenage mothers who ponder what would have happened if they would have been a little more precautious, hadn’t left school or what opportunities did they miss because of the pregnancy. Bringing a child into this world brings a great amount of responsibility on the shoulder of the parents, the baby needs a lot of attention and care that means their irresponsibility lead them away from their dreams and ambitions in life.

“Women who become parents as teenagers are at greater risk of social and economic disadvantage throughout their lives than those who delay child bearing” (Hayes 1987, 138) A lot of teenage girls who get pregnant try to hide it as long as they can therefore are unaware of the care they require at this age. They are affected by malnutrition, depression and frustration that results in miscarriages, death during the delivery and weak babies. This emotional crisis can lead these teens to have something against their new born babies and they blame them for their lost possibilities in life.

Kids born to teens most of the times go through emotional conflict, social insecurity and educational failures. ‘Single mothers with limited resources may be subject to multiple stresses in trying to provide such basic necessities as food or shelter, and, thus have little energy or time for their children”