Posted on 07/27/2006 7:23:24 AM PDT by grundle
With teenage girls now choosing pregnancy as a "career option", according to a leading charity, three young mothers talk about how they dealt with the experience.
Britain has the highest number of teenage pregnancies in Europe and they cost the country about £63m a year.
Many young girls even see having a baby as a better option than a low-paid "dead-end" job, recent research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests.
But with 40,000 teenagers giving birth in Britain every year what is the reality of having a baby so young? What challenges do such young mothers face and how do they cope?
Housewife
Zoe and Jenny were just 14 when they got pregnant and Olivia 15. The three girls met at Cyfle a special educational unit in Wrexham, north Wales, for young mothers. Cyfle provides support so they can continue with their education, while looking after their babies.
The girls are transferred to the unit in the later stages of pregnancy and usually return two weeks after the birth. An on-site creche is provided so the girls can bring their babies with them. They are usually taught at the unit for a term, before returning to their normal schools.
Georgia, Zoe and Gemma
Zoe, from Wrexham, managed to conceal her pregnancy until just two weeks before giving birth with the help of her identical twin, Gemma. At school her sister stepped into her place when it came to sports lessons and at home the youngsters managed to fool their parents and younger sister.
"I didn't want anyone to force me into an abortion and I felt sorry for my Mum - she always tries so hard and I didn't want to disappoint her by telling her I was pregnant," she says.
"I was scared though - we were both scared. The longer you go on without saying anything the harder it is to tell someone."
Choices
Zoe's mother, Collette, finally realised what was happening during a family holiday in Spain, when it became impossible for Zoe to conceal her pregnancy with baggy clothes. Just two weeks later she gave birth to Georgia and went to Cyfle to study for her GCSEs.
The unit was set up by a former secondary school teacher, Teresa Foster Evans, who was concerned that girls getting pregnant whilst still at school are often forced to leave without finishing their education.
Olivia also attended the unit. She had been at a private girls school in Chester when, on the brink of starting her GCSE year, she told her mother that she needed to pop into a supermarket to take a pregnancy test. She came out of the store in tears and announced that the test, which she'd taken in the shop's lavatory, was positive.
Sara, Holly and Jenny
"In some ways I wasn't surprised," says her mother, Anne Malcolm. "I was shocked of course and a lot of things crossed my mind but there was no question of not keeping the baby. Some people suggested a termination - I wasn't one of them."
Olivia has no regrets about having her daughter Ayeasha at 15. "She's the best thing that ever happened to me," she says. "If I had to do the same again I would. I don't have contact with Ayeasha's Dad but I have help from my parents and there's nothing else I wanted to do with my life.
"I don't want a career - I want to bring my little girl up and I still go out and have fun."
'Better lives'
Teenage pregnancy rates in north Wales are particularly worrying. The most common scenario is for the daughters of teenage mothers to go on and repeat the same pattern as they grow up. This was the case for the third of the girls, Jenny, who set out to get pregnant when she was just 14.
"I wanted a baby, I wanted to be a housewife and I thought it would bring me and my boyfriend, Danny, closer together," she says. "He was 17 at the time and he wasn't saying I had to use contraception. But once I got pregnant he wasn't happy then and told me to get rid of it."
Jenny, however, chose to go ahead with the pregnancy and now lives alone with two-year-old Holly. She's supported by her own mother, Sara, who knows what it's like to bring up a baby young and on your own.
Teresa Foster Evans
"It's not what I would have wanted for her, she knows how hard it was for me and how poor we were but still she went ahead and did it," she says. "She so wanted it to work and she thought she'd be with Danny for the rest of her life, even though I knew it would never work out."
Teresa Foster Evans believes a large part of the work going on at Cyfle has to centre around helping these teenage mothers lead more fulfilling lives so their own children can be given more choices as they grow up.
"Education is the key to it," she says. "If we can get them through their GCSEs and help them finish their schooling we can give them and their children far better lives."
How about their kids?!
Such sadness, moral bankruptcy, closed hearts and longing for something better - all in one short paragraph.
"Congratulations, Miss. You're the mother of a 7-pound, 8-ounce, bouncing baby lunch ticket."
Well... at least its better than them getting abortions.
ah yes, the American way.
Doogle
Your post on this article is one of the best posts I've ever read here. It captures the essence of the article so well.
Actually there is nothing new here.
I remember, during the sixties, being told by a teenage single mother how exited she was because the next day her 20" TV was arriving. Knowing she was a welfare mum I asked how she managed that.
The answer was simple. The TV set had doors on the front and was therefore classed as furniture, so she could have it.
Her baby will be forty-ish now. Hope he/she learned a lot from watching the 20" TV.
From reading this all I can gather is we have a bunch of lazy girls who do not want to work for a living.
..yeah "it" should cost DANNY 10 pounds a week
Doogle
If we have I'm not sure it's a good thing.
I'd far rather the state refrain from promoting abortions. Having something in place for unwed mothers who want to raise their baby ain't in and of itself a bad thing. (Though clearly living with the father should be promoted).
Religious groups should be very active in these situations too as it brings folks into the church.
/s
She's got a ticket to ride
but she don't care
My baby don't care
Old enough to remember that?
Oh yes, I agree. I am all for helping them out but they must finish school and work. Which I really think is the way it is now, at least the working part. In my volunteer activities, some of the mothers receive assistance but they must work also. And I will say, since the new rules went into effect, none of them have gotten pregnant again. All of the sudden, they remembered to go get the patch or shot that last a long time.
Man, you are right about that. I once went into a housing project to do some service work and talked to a young customer of ours about fixing an appliance. The young girl told me to talk to her mother, or if not home, her grandmother.
They all lived in the same project.
Me too but let's add - I'd rather the state didn't promote pregnancy by making it a profitable endeavor for these young girls.
This story is about the U.K. but it's no different in the U.S.
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