PREGNANCY UNDER 18
If you’re under 18 and pregnant or your girlfriend is pregnant with you, you’re sure to have a lot of questions in mind. Who can determine what happens to the baby? How are we supposed to do this? What about school? We don’t have any money yet! And do we even want to become parents? Here you can find out what rights girls and boys have in this situation and where there is support.
Party, flirts, alcohol – you can make a stupid mistake. Although the number is slightly down, 8 out of every year 8 out of every 1000 teenagers between the ages of 15 and 17 get pregnant. Natascha Bohlmann, senior midwife at the Vivantes Auguste-Viktoria-Klinikum in Berlin, knows what this means for young girls.
When a teenager becomes pregnant, the horror in family, circle of friends and school is usually huge. Is the concern justified?
Yes, because experience shows that when a young girl has a child, 90 percent of her CV is written. In most cases, a teenage mother breaks off school, marries a man she would never have married in other circumstances, and eventually slips into poverty. As bitter as that sounds, that is the sad reality.
FOR OR AGAINST THE CHILD?
This is already difficult for adult women. Young girls are even harder to cope with. They suffer from sleep disturbances, often carrying mental disorders up to the risk of suicide. They count on how old their child would be now. This goes to their souls for a lifetime. It really has to be said that a teenager should not get pregnant in the first place.
ARE YOUNG PEOPLE NOT ENLIGHTENED ENOUGH?
But, even in primary school, sex education is taught. We regularly have third-graders in the hospital who visit the delivery room and the maternity ward. I think this early enlightenment is extremely important. That is why the number of teenage pregnancies is limited by international standards. Seven out of 1,000 young people aged 13 to 19 get pregnant, with the UK over 20.
WHAT CAN PARENTS DO?
A responsible approach to sexuality in the home is important. You have to talk openly about it and make two things clear to the children: a girl who gets her period for the first time can get pregnant! And even from a single time you can get pregnant! Teenagers just take it too loosely. Contraception is essential.
EVERY CHILD SHOULD KNOW
It may be. But one must not underestimate the youthful recklessness and their inexperience. When teenagers go to parties, alcohol plays a big role. Their inhibition threshold drops and they think to themselves: Oh, one time I don’t get pregnant right away. This error can have lifelong consequences. In addition, young girls still have little experience with the pill. They forget to take it from time to time and still believe that they are adequately protected.
HOW SHOULD PARENTS BEHAVE
Parents need to be there for their children, preferably before something like this can happen. Allegations do not help later either. Of course, parents are often desperate out of concern for their own child.