Teenage Mothers :: Teen Pregnancy

Becoming a parent permanently and profoundly alters a teenagers life. Most of the girls for target about their dreams of quick-witted marriage, college is almost always out of the question, graduating High School becomes a goal most teenage moms dont achieve. Young girls having babies isnt new, as a matter of fact, teenage stemma was higher in the 1950 then it is today, but things were different. Most of the girls were eighteen or nineteen and many of them already married. Only a few of single mothers actually kept their babies. Today many mothers are fifteen or sixteen years old. Some are even as young as twelve. Fathers get little or nothing to the care of the baby, at that placefore its even harder for the mother. All of a sudden the girl is thrown into the world of responsibilities and duties, where the babys needs come in the lead her own. She is expected to balance her school or a job with the full time task of raising a baby. Her world is changed from her world of dates , parties, sleepovers and waiting for a Saturday so you tail end sleep late, to the world of doctor appointments, diapers, baby formulas, bills, and day care. Experts say that girls have babies from lack of self-esteem. "Too often, adolescent pregnancy is what happens to poor kids," says psychologist Judith Musick. "It can be a symptom of having no better options." They need someone to love and someone to love them back. Whats cuddlier and cuter than a baby is? A baby gives them something to bearing forward to and something that gives meaning to their life. Studies show that a lot of teenage mothers come from poverty and some of them dont know any better. Theres definitely a lack of cultivation but it doesnt have a direct relationship to race or ethnic background. A lot of teenage moms dont think that they have anything to lose by having a baby. Communities and Governments have tried to help out teenage mothers but sometimes what they do just isnt enough. There is After-School Care for young adolescents and there are community learning centers. In 1984 about 8.7 million girls were living with a baby and without the father. Only 58% of those girls have been awarded child support. Of those who were supposed to get child support in 1983, only half received the amount due.