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."
I dont agree with forcing all women to work but I do think there should be some contingencies to getting welfare funds for pregnancy at such a young age:
Completion of school makes sense.
Cohabitation with the father (with exceptions for incest or rape).
Probably even some basic parenting classes.
Really I think this sort of thing was better handled was it was expected women wouldn't work. Society and charities took it upon themselves to address.
Now society presumes women will work and so the prescribed methods are condoms and if those fail abortion.
Making pregnancy a quick shot to a free income stream with no sorts of responsibility is of course vile and will only contribute to the deterioration of society (in a way its the same reason parents are forbidden from taking out massive life insurance policies on very young children who could then be looked at as easy money).
I agree that the best case scenario is for mothers to be at home with their babies. I dislike daycare for the most part but there must be some consequences for ones actions. A teenager should be required to finish school first, the state will pay to take care of the baby while she does that but then she must work, it will teach her responsibility and her child responsibility. Also, the father should immediately have his wages garnished the minute he gets a job. Unless of course he does the right thing and marries the girl and provides a loving home for the child.
Call me crazy, but I don't think minors should be allowed to keep their babies unless some responsible person is willing and able to provide for them. I remember seeing a story on the news with some homeless girl from Toronto living in a shelter with her baby. How can being homeless with a baby not be considered child abuse. How can someone who can't even support themselves be allowed to take on the responsibility of caring for a baby? Bleeding hearts will cry that you can't deprive people of their children just because they're poor, but when their poverty is a result of their own unwillingness or inability to provide for themselves, I think "Yes, you can."
Don't they know that the welfare money would not even pay part of the upkeep of raising a child right. I don't get it. I believe that they think they will have extra funds to party and have no idea that you actually need to spend money on the baby. Well at least Europe is getting a few kids out of it....very sarc.
Stop me if you've heard this one before...
this younger female generation is making a solid case for the islamist view of women. these girls need to learn to keep their legs crossed or go get fitted for burkhas.
I hope everyone can forgive me......:) LOL!
No wonder there are 40,000 births, there are no consequences. You got yourself knocked up (where are the 'fathers' of the babies) and you get accomodations made for you to even continue school. And a 'checque'.
Under islamist view, these 14-15 year old girls would still be mothers, albeit in a marriage to an older man, maybe as one or more "wives". Western society may have its problems, but lets not look at the extreme situation as normal. Most 14 year old girls are not having sex, never mind getting pregnant.
Huh. That's how the Democrats here in the US destroyed the urban black family unit.
I prefer to say that upon finishing school, young people are tossed, bound and gagged, onto the street of life.
For the first 18+ years of their lives (the school years), children suffer no real consequences of their poor decisions, if they're allowed to make any significant decisions at all. Is it any wonder then that they have such poor judgement?
The crowd who thinks demography is destiny should be all in favor of this, eh wot?
Someone, cannot remember who, wrote the following phrase in reference to the same group of young people, in particular those from divorced and/or single-parent homes:
"these kids litter the social landscape"
Sad, but true when you think about it. Someone (i.e. the taxpayer) has to take care of them, pick them up, put them somewhere, keep them from blowing around, but still, they are a nuisance and expensive because no one is accountable, just like litter.
While it's true that not all kids from these homes end up "littering the social landscape," the fact remains that the overwhelming majority of kids who burden the social welfare and law enforcement systems are NOT from original, intact, nuclear families. That is a fact that simply cannot be denied, no matter how much the liberals want to.
Well, that child can look forward to some good times. /rolls eyes
That is so true and sad.
Ditto....
Chav! Awesome! I learned a new word! Google "chav" and quite a few humorous sites come up. My favorite (so far) is from Urban Dictionary. Lots more to go though!
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