Interview -Final Post

I interviewed my mom, because i know that she knows people that have been pregnant and have had kids young or decided not to have them. Whether she went to school with them, is related to them or is friends with them. I interviewed her in her home on March 28, 2009. I gained some information about what has happened in her life, about what she knows, and what she has seen for real life, which gives me an understanding face to face about what goes on. I think it's interesting to see what people have to say and what they know from experience.

These are the questions from me and the answers from my mom;
A= me, Ashley
S= Sue, mom

A: "What is your opinion on teenage pregnancies?"
S: "Teenagers are just kids themselves and are too young to have kids."
A: "When do you think it is too young or when it is a good time to have kids?"
S: "When a married couple are mature enough and are able to care for a child and have a serious relationship."
(a parent would say that to their kids anyway, but very true) << Ashley's opinion.
A: "Why do you think teens become pregnant?"
S: "For many reasons. Immaturity, lack of education on teen pregnancy, precautions etc.-some get pregnant because of lack of self esteem or they think it will keep a relationship together."
A: "What problems do you think it may cause?"
S: "For one, it's a lifetime commitment and I do not think most teens think about the long term responsibilities. It's a financial strain. Most teens will have to live with a parent(s) because they are too young to get a place of their own, some teens quit school, and some teens have no outside support.
A: "Based on experience, or knowing someone who was a pregnant teen, what happened with their lives, the child, education etc.?"
S: "Missed out on college, felt worthless, made many choices thinking it was the only choice at the time. Felt trapped. There have been some teens who are successful and make great parents, but I think if given a choice again, they would have waited."
A: "Do you think after the pregnancy/abortion/adoption, that this person's choice was a good one?"
S: "That's a question that only they can answer."
A: "What do you know about the topic?"
S: "I know that I have 3 children and even as an adult it is not an easy job. It's very hard work."
A: "If you know someone whose parent was a pregnant teen with the child you know, what can you say about that situation? Was it hard for the child?"
S: "Yes, financially and mentally. She had to struggle by herself because when the father found out he left her."
A: "Being a parent, are you glad you had children when you did? If not what would you have done differently?"
S: "I don't regret having any of my children when I did, but if I could still have the same children, I would have gone to college first. Now as an adult, it is difficult to always balance work, school and children."
A: "What would be your #1 advice to teens about pregnancy?"
S: "Sex education, know options, remember that birth control only "helps" prevent pregnancy, not a sure thing, and it doesn't stop ST D's.
A: "What would your #1 advice to pregnant teens be?"
S: "Wait, there is always time to have children. Enjoy being a kid as long as you can because when you are an adult, you always want to go back. You have enough responsibilities as an adult, don't rush it."
A: "What is your opinion on abortion?"
S: "I don't believe in abortion because there are plenty of ways to prevent it. The only time that I think it is okay is when someone is raped or incest."
A: "If you were a pregnant teen what would you do?"
S: "I would want to know my options and would hope that I would have the support from the father, family and friends."

This all made me realize things a little more realistically. It sort of just made more sense to hear it from someone and more clearly.

Teenage Pregnancy Response

I thought this was the worst site that I have found so far. It had about the same information as most other sites, with a lot less detail, and a lot less information. It was one of the ones that I could find that just gave information and had some simple suggestions, so that is why I chose it. Most of the other sites are just the same with different names. I think that it was a very boring choice, but it had some little things that get you to the point about a few important things you need to know if you are a pregnant teenager. The site also leads you to other links about having a healthy pregnancy and what to expect, which is for all pregnancies, not teen pregnancies alone. Maybe I can try to find what to expect on just teens when they are pregnant, even though a lot of stuff will be the same.

Teenage Pregnancy

This site says that most teenagers don't plan to get pregnant, but many of them still do. Teen pregnancies carry extra health risks to the mother and the baby. Teenagers often don't recieve timely parental care, and they have a higher risk for pregnancy-related high blood pressure and its complications. Risks for the baby inlcude premature birth and a low birthweight. If you are a pregnant teenager, you can help you and your baby by taking your prenatal vitamins for your health and to prevent some birth defects, avoid smoking, alcohol and drugs, and using protection. If you decide to have a baby, the most important thing you can do is to take good care of yourself so that you and your baby will be healthy. Girls who get the proper care and make the right choices have a very good chance of having healthy babies.

Girls Who Parented Response

This article was similar to the last one I posted, but this one is with girls who actually parented and didn't abort. I think that these girls are doing well so far but they are crazy! The last story I was very shocked. I was surprised that someone can even have a baby at the age of 13. Some girls have not even been developed enough to have kids yet at that age. They haven't lived at all until they at least get into high school. It would be hard to not have anyone there for you either and for the baby when there is no dad around. I am shocked that she is still in school but think that it is a really good thing that she is. That will help her and her child's future. I don't think that ANY 13 year old should be a parent. I high school is a little bit better that 7th grade. That can be a very scary thing. I'm surprised that the baby was born and wonder if it is even a very healthy baby. There are also many many more stories with teen mothers who have and are parenting on this website.

Girls Who Parented

These are real girls who have parented as teen mothers...

Myranda:
She found out she was 3 months pregnant when she was 15. At that point she had been with her boyfriend for about 6 months. She thought they were in love, but she was wrong. She said when she told him she was pregnant, he told her to get an abortion and that it wasn't his. He then told her that he hated her and that he wanted a blood test on the baby.
She said that even though he is not there for her son, his family is very supportive and love him very much. The baby is now 3 months old and the father has only seen him once. Her advice is to wait until you know who the right person is, and to make sure that he loves you and the baby and to make sure he will be there for the both of you because it is really hard to raise one on your own. She is very thankful that both families help out in raising her son.

Anastasia:
She got pregnant when she was 13. Some people made the suggestion that she should get an abortion, and that she would never get anywhere in life. She said that it was the best decision that she has ever made to keep her son.
She is now 18 and her son is 4. She graduated from high school and is now in college. She says that because of her son she has the motivation and determination to make something more of her life. She is going to improve to the world, herself, and her son that nothing is impossible. She says that everything she does is for him and she thinks twice about anything that will affect him in a bad way.

Patrice:
This girl had her first kid when she was in the 7th grade. She is now in the 9th grade and is 15 while her son is 22 months.
She says that at first she didn't know what to do, but now she enjoys being a teen mother. She doesn't go places she used to anymore, but she says she is young, smart and beautiful and can spend more time with her son, and says that he is her bundle of joy.

Girls Who Aborted Response

I think that it is sad how many people have made the choice to have an abortion, and some of the reasons that they did. They will always have to live with the consequences of feeling the guilt and sadness. In this case, she was made to have one. If they do not want to make that personal choice, I don't think that they should have to. That is a big decision though. In each of the stories that I read the different people felt sad in their own way but I think that some of the reasoning's were even sadder. Their boyfriends wanted them to, or they didn't have anyone to help them, or they were forced to or just made a poor decision. I think more people need to consider the consequences of it if they do.

Girls Who Aborted

This girl is named Latasha. She found out that she was pregnant when she was fourteen years old. Instead of wanting an abortion, she was forced to have one. She said that she was forced to and she will never forget that day. It was October 13 when she found out. She never heard from her babies father again since he thought that her mother would press charges since he was eighteen years old. She was scared out of her mind when she told her cousin. She then went to get an abortion after her cousin told everyone. She said she will never forgive herself for putting her own flesh and blood in harm's way.

(There are many more stories by many more teens on the site, with different reasoning's to why they did what they did)

Pregnant Teens Talk About Life As Young Moms Response

I think that these teens have a lot of feelings and regrets about their life and their decisions. I think that they were smarter about it after it happened because they realize now that it's to late they see what they could have done or the mistake that they have made. I think that more teens could be more responsible. I feel the same way as I do about all of the other sites that I saw and their reasoning's for what happened. Yes, sometimes it is an accident, but that's also an excuse some of the time.

Pregnant Teens Talk About Life As Young Moms

Teka Steward is in her second trimester of her pregnancy. She is a straight-A student and described herself as a "goody-two-shoes" before she got pregnant. She said she was the goody-two-shoes whose mom worked in the school district and couldn't do anything or she would find out. She was captain of her golf team, was involved in Young Life, a leader, involved in her church and went on mission trips. She was six months along when she said that. She explained that she had an image, and then a temptation of doing stuff, and that she's a regular teen and falls sometimes.. all the times. She had heard all the information on safe sex and said that she practiced it, and to her shock it didn't prevent her pregnancy. She said that they had used protection and she thinks it just broke. She said that you don't even know it's happening until it happens. She said that at first she was like "OK this totally ruined my dreams," and then explained that she feels differently now, and you have to keep pushing forward and pressing towards your dreams. Many pregnant teens who find little support end up in poverty and only 3% finish college before age 30.

Ashley Chapman learned that she was expecting at 17. She thinks that they need to make new statistics with her 3-month-old-Max. At first she thought that she would just take care of it, then she realized she can't. She said that she had sex and that she has to be mature and deal with the consequences and grow up really fast. Now she has to tend to Max's every needs. She says that its totally different because you can't just go shopping and do whatever you want when you have a baby. Everything is about them, feeding them, changing them and playing with them.

Besides the weight of an impending infant, the pregnant teens also have to deal with how society, family and friends view them. Angela Gavieres learned that she was expecting at 15, and said that a lot of people are disappointed and they say, "oh she's a waste and you know, her whole future's going down the drain. She is currently 5 months pregnant and said that her future, and her school, she was terrified.

Janelle has dealt with the same issue. In school she let a lot of the teachers down because they were expecting more from her. The other day her friend's little sister called her Jamie Lynn Spears, and she felt heartbroken because she used to look up to her, and felt like she had let her down.

Teen Pregnancy #2 Response

I think that it's a good thing that the number has gone down for teen pregnancies. It is sad to hear about how someone can ruin their life emotionally the way some do for themselves, their family and the boyfriend. It is sad to me also to see babies have to go through the consequences of their parents mistakes. I think it is always harder for the father because most guys can't handle the situation as well as the mother, and they don't know how to act about it and they may get more stressed out about it. The end of the information is kind of obvious, but people don't take that into consideration before they make that important mistake.

Teen Pregnancy #2

Did you know that one in three teens are likely to get pregnant at least once by the age of 20 in the United States? Yep its true! This is better than a decade ago, when the number was four in ten girls. The number is said to still be too high. Pregnancy has very important consequences for teen girls, boys, and their babies. Having a baby as a teenager makes it much harder or sometimes even impossible for girls and boys to reach their goals, such as finishing high school, going on to college, getting a good job, or getting married when they grow up, and poses additional challenges as well for the child also.

Some teen mothers decide to continue their pregnancy and then choose adoption for their baby. Adoption may be the best choice for the baby and the teen parents. There are many adoption agencies and types of adoption. Some teens are even able to meet the parents who adopt their babies. In other situations, many teens decide to keep their baby. Some marry the baby's father and raise the baby together. Sometimes the baby's grandparents or other family members help raise it so that the mother can stay in school and work. It requires a lot of extra hard work for a teen parent to finish school and get a good job. Children of teen mothers have greater risk of poverty, behavioral problems, poor academic performance, incarceration, and teen pregnancy, so good parenting is important. Some teen pregnancies end in abortion. Abortions can have complications. There also may be emotional consequences. Some women say that they feel sad and use more alcohol and drugs than before. Some states require that the teens have a parents permission to have an abortion. In 2002 there were over 750,000 teen pregnancies in the U.S. including 215,000 teen abortions.

Teen pregnancy is also hard in teen fathers. The stress of the pregnancy can put a strain on the relationship with the girlfriend or the parents. Teen fathers do not go as far in school and make less money when they get in the job market than teens who do not father children. Even though they are young, they have to face up to adult responsibilities like supporting the mother emotionally and financially during her pregnancy and helping to raise their child. They're financially responsible for their children until the children turn 18.

Once a girl is pregnant, there is no easy choice. The very best thing is to help your son or daughter avoid getting pregnant, or getting someone pregnant, in the first place.

Why Do Teens Want To Get Pregnant So Bad For Response

I think that some of the questions were pretty good and basic questions many people would ask someone who wants to be pregnant. I know some of the questions were the same as mine. I also think that the answers answered my questions, but I still don't understand why people would want to have a life like that. I would have liked to know what this teen had realized when she was 30 since she said that she had realized many things. I still think that when people want to do something like this they don't know what they are up against until the time comes when they are stuck in the position and can't get out. Not having a job would be a very bad thing when you have a kid. I think that people need to look at the long run and see what the results could be for them and their baby. Also on the site, there were responses to the stories, and some of the people had pretty strong feelings about wanting to get pregnant so young, they were pretty interesting.

Why Do Teens Want To Get Pregnant So Bad For?

From Yahoo Answers, from real teens.

Some of the questions people asked:
1) What are they thinking?
2) Why do they want a baby so soon in life? They can't even get a job or drive a car.
3) Their life hasn't even begun, why do they want to end their freedom so young and best of all?
4) Why do idiot teens who are already pregnant give them advise to get pregnant when their life isn't together as it is?
5) What will they gain having a baby?
6) What happened to the get a job, live on your own, grow up and have fun, support yourself, get married, buy a house and have a family?

The answer:
This girl was a teen mom of a planned pregnancy, who became pregnant at 17 while planning her marriage. She said that it wasn't supposed to happen the way it did. They took expert advice and said that it would take a few months or more to become pregnant. They also had some delays on the marriage classes. She was 7 months pregnant at her wedding and says that she wouldn't change her choices or her life.
She said that she was thinking that she was in a loving, committed relationship, with the means to care for a child. She wanted to be a mother, had two vehicles and was supporting herself. She didn't end her freedom at a young age, and didn't miss the bar scene and doing the stupid things that most young people do. She says that she would never advise any teen to become pregnant and now that she is 30 she has realized many many things. The arguments for becoming a teen mom aren't that great. She gained the exact same things as every other mom did. She did not have a job, she owned her home mortgage at 18, was married, and has supported herself without any monetary help since she has moved out of her parents house. (posted two weeks ago)

Ms. S. comments

Ashley - I checked and recorded this blog for blog #5. I still need #6 and this week is #7. Thanks.
Ms. S.

Annie's Baby Response

I think that it was cool to do something new instead of finding a web page. The book took a little longer but it was a good story. It had everything to do with my topic. It was about teen pregnancy and how a young girl ended up the way she did and what she did when she had the baby. I think that what she did in the end was a responsible thing to do. She had a very rough situation with the guy she was with and what he did to her and the outcome of it. She was trying as hard as she could to maintain a somewhat normal life and take care of a baby at the same time. I thought that it had a good story to it.

Annie's Baby

This story is about a pregnant fourteen year old girl named Annie. She always wanted to be with the "in" crowd. When she finally was, she left her two old best friends who after awhile got fed up with her new attitude and new life. She then got a boyfriend who was also a part of the in crowd. He was one of the more popular kids that people wanted to date. After awhile of being with her new peers she looked up to and admired, she started to go to parties with her boyfriend. She became pressured by her new friends and her and her boyfriend tool their relationship a little bit further. He had been pressuring her to have sex and then would ignore Annie at school. Thats all her new friends talked about was sex and partying. She soon found out what kind of person her boyfriend really was and wanted to stop the relationship, but found it hard to do because she thought she was in love with this kid. She ended up getting pregnant after being raped by her boyfriend. She told him and he beat her and told her that she couldn't tell anyone. He raped her after he beat her again. She felt so alone and felt like her world was coming to an end. Later she went to a group of pregnant teens, and they shared their stories. She made a new friend and later became friends with her old ones again. She decided to keep the baby and see how things would go. After awhile, she didn't really know if she could and ended giving her up to a family who could take care of her.

Teen Pregnancy Pact: The Perfect Storm? Response

I think that this was a very different article. There was two sides to the whole story and that was confusing to what really happened. But.. that article shared some of the drama that is in the real world. I think that the article should have told more about the girls and how they were going to deal with the future. It would be interesting to know what happened after the births. Out of the 17 girls, I wonder what kind of problems with the pregnancies they had with being so young. I think that it was weird how they all were pregnant at the same time or close to it, and how the media got out of the whole thing that there was a pact. Sketchy! I would also like to know what made these teens want to do this and ruin there life in school and enjoy being young. Why would they want to make that irresponsible choice and ruin their childhood? I don't think that it was a very wise decision. I also think that the school didn't have too much to do with it and that the choices were made by these irresponsible individuals.

Teen Pregnancy Pact: The Perfect Storm?

This is a story that was found online about 17 girls from high school in Gloucester Massachusetts. These 17 girls made a pact to become pregnant and raise the babies all at the same time together. It said that this was not one of the first stories that made international headlines. The Perfect Storm was one before. Now they are questioning who was responsible for so many pregnancies. It was said that some people blamed the depressed economy and the demise of its once-thriving fishing industry, some blamed the so-called broken families and directionless youth. It was said that it was Gloucester High brought this problem on itself by providing easy access on-campus day care for the babies of student mothers. Hollywood was said to have some responsibility, the movie Juno was blamed for having an unwed teen mother, and the obsession with teen celebs having babies as accessories. A reproductive specialist noted that the pregnancy trend at Gloucester high began before Juno hit the theaters. Gloucester's mayor said the rate of pregnancies was a statistical "blip" and rued the lack of health education funding. The school superintendent said that he never heard the students use the term pact, and only by the media. After awhile one of the girls was on national television. She was a 17 year old Lindsey Oliver denied that there was a pact. "There was a group of girls already pregnant that decided they were going to help each other to finish school and raise their kids together." "I think that it was a coincidence." she said.

(That is an article that people have posted comments about. Go online and see what other people think!)

Ms. S. comments

Ashley - you have combined your notes and your response into one post. I will let it go this time but remember: Use title of article in your titles, have a post for notes and a post for responses, and remember to color key them correctly.

Teen Interviews Response

I think that these stories are sad for the mother, the family and most of all the baby. The baby did not ask to be brought to the world that early and it may die, or come out with all kinds of problem that may effect it's life forever. This was my favorite information that I have found so far because it was coming from the actual teens themselves and what there advice is to other teens. The actual movie gives more information than the small paragraph provided under the clip.

Teen Interviews!

This post is the most interesting out of the three that I have found so far. This site shows teenage mothers telling something about themselves. If you click on the link, it will take you to the interviews and they may introduce themselves, but on the written information they do not have names. These are small interviews they had with this website... (other information provided in the movie clip.)

First interview. This one individual was mad at herself when she got pregnant. She got kicked out of her moms, and her grandmothers house. She then went to live at her boyfriends house. Her major advice is to stay in school.

Second interview. This girl is a seventeen year old girl. In this interview (see movie clip) she talks about how she was fifteen years old when she got pregnant. (Thats our age now for most of you in this class) She got scared and hid her pregnancy for four months.

Third interview. (no picture provided) This girl is fourteen years old and is NOW six months pregnant. At three months her father skipped out. (not sure what that means exactly) Her mother agreed to help her with the baby and does not believe in abortion. (That can be a good thing and a bad thing. This girl wants to remain anonymous and does not want to reveal her name.

Fourth interview. This girl is a fourteen year old mother, and finds it hard to be in school and be a mother at the same time. Her advice.. is to use some kind of birth control if you are going to have sex.

Hillarys response

Hey Ashley it's nice to see that you are enjoying doing your project and I definitely agree that being a teenage mom is something that must be really hard and you are correct when the teenage girls can have health problems and there are major risks of the baby dying or being premature or having birth defects if not taken care of properly. I'm glad there are institutions and other places that are out there to help teenage moms. Last year I had done a huge project on teenage pregnancy and it's definitely a topic that catches my attention because I learn something new about it all the time. Some teenagers are not smart and don't think and end up getting pregnant unintentionally and there are a lot of girls who have abortions, have miscarriages or end up having health problems or even losing the baby at birth. I wish some teenagers would be more careful and think about what they are doing before something like that happens. I'm sure you'll find out a lot of information on teenage pregnancy and your blog is great and you have good notes and everything. Keep up the good work!