Bringing life into this world is supposed to be a beautiful thing. And when the time is right and with the right person pregnancy for most woman can be a lifelong dream. But in some cases, this news is not always expected or wanted especially when you’re a young teenage girl in high school.
Teenage pregnancy is a rollercoaster and depending whether the teen chooses to conceive or abort, this experience can be tricky. One many choose to stay away from at a young age. Teen pregnancy comes with many big decisions that young girls aren’t always prepared to make while balancing the hardships that come with growing up and being in high school, let alone pregnancy. I’m sure most girls would rather be deciding what Starbucks drink they want, rather than deciding if they’d like to be a mother at 16. Protected sex should be practiced if you want to avoid pregnancy, but teenagers aren’t always smart.
I’ve had a few girlfriends who have had to make these tough decisions at ages of just 16 and 17. Some made the decision to abort while others chose to conceive, and it changed them. Going from parties every weekend to diapers every day isn't easy, and neither is having an abortion. That decision is never made easily, or stress free. Young girls are fragile and so are their developing minds. So, making these big decisions is tough, but above all, facing what others may think of those decisions is even harder. High school kids are full of judgment and most of the time don’t understand what it’s really like to have to make these kinds of choices at this age.
I had a girlfriend I knew briefly who got pregnant at age 17. She was one of those friends you saw at a party and hangout with only at parties. We also followed each other all over social media, so I got to keep up with her day to day life outside of the weekends as well. Her life, from an outside perspective looked like it was flipped upside down. She literally went from being the average teenage girl to a responsible mother, in a matter of months. She now works and provides for her child like a normal adult mother would, when she had her baby towards the end of high school. And it looked like she got her life together pretty fast, which I think helped her avoid most of the back lash from our peers. I believe she was a lucky one.
While she had a supportive mother and partner to have the child responsibly, I also knew someone else who was less fortunate. This young girl was pregnant at 17 as well and had to make the decision to abort because she didn’t have this kind of support. And you know they always say, it takes a village. In fact, she was in only one relationship all high school, and when she got the news, he wasn’t supportive enough at all. And she thought her parents would be the same due to lack of trust. She made the decision to abort when she knew she wouldn’t be able to provide the proper care to give this child the life it deserved.
Both young girls had to go through life changing decisions at a very vulnerable stage in their lives and growing up and molding into the young adult I am hasn’t always been easy but, I couldn’t imagine going through pregnancy on top of everything else I’ve gone through as a teenage girl. And I wonder, should I judge them upon making such a careless decision in becoming pregnant at a young age, or should I applaud them on their bravery in being able to make such mature decisions in their adolescents.
COMING SOON
Thank you to Dr. Danielle Prentice and Dr. Jocelyn Fitzgerald for being guest bloggers for this series of blogs, Things Teenage Girls Always Wanted to Know About Gynecology. Have more questions about teen pregnancy? The Las Vegas OBGYN Specialists from My Virtual Physician can answer all of your questions online.
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