Although in general teen pregnancy rates are pretty low in this country, there are some areas where they persistently remain high. In these communities, very few of the students succeed. Teen mothers face all kinds of obstacles that normal teenagers do not face. The transformation is sudden and drastic, and can cause profoundly crippling psychological effects. Just picture it: one moment, you are a carefree teenager living your life with your whole future ahead of you, and then suddenly you realize that you have become pregnant. Your whole life changes based on this fact. Suddenly, you have the responsibilities of caring for another human being. You can't go out and explore the world, living your life the way you had intended. Instead, you are tied down without adequate skills to get a good job and advance yourself in the world.
No matter how much high school students are told about teenage pregnancy, it never prepares them for the grim realities. For a teen mother or teen father, it can be very hard to face up to the challenges. Some teen mothers give their children up for adoption, while other ones have them raised by their parents. Sometimes, teen pregnancy abortion is the option they choose, while other times they opt to raise the child themselves. Whatever choice a teenage mother makes, it is not going to be easy.
Fortunately, things are easier for teen moms than they used to be. It wasn't very many years ago when teen mothers were virtually shunned in their communities. They could be kicked out of high school for becoming pregnant, and certainly would be looked at much differently by the people who they lived with from then on. That isn't the case anymore.
In some communities, of course, things are worse than in others, but in general there is a support network available for teen mothers. Sometimes it is a caring family, other times it is a resource center specifically set up for the purpose, and still other times it is a support group over the Internet. Whatever resources teen mothers opt to use, the important thing is that they have someone to turn to. Not only do these young moms need advice, but they also need compassion and sympathy from people in the same situation. Even when it is an unplanned pregnancy, having a child is in many ways a wonderful event in someone's life. It doesn't have to be the end of it.
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