Teen Pregnancy.., How many agree it's stupid!! Options

[princess*missy]

Heey Ya'll.. Do any of you know someone trying to get pregnant? I do and personally I think it's stupid. She's 17 and still in school...she's already had one kid and she doesn't even have it... she couldn't afford to keep up with it... so why should she try to have another one.. it get on my nerves because all I hear from her is... I wanna get pregnant!! Her b/f is not all that great, he talks dirty to other girls (which is HER friends) and he asked her to get my number and take a pic of me because he wanted to talk to me to see what I looked like...

Is there anyone out there who know someone like this?

BTW- thanks for taking the time to read this!

[voguelove]

yes. i think its stupid.

-About 11 percent of all U.S. births in 2002 were to teens (ages 15 to 19)2. The majority of teenage births (about 67 percent) are to girls ages 18 and 19.2
-About 860,000 teenagers become pregnant each year, and about 425,000 give birth.2
-About one in three teenagers becomes pregnant before age 20.3
-The teenage birth rate is declining. Between 1991 and 2002, the rate fell by 30 percent (from 61.8 per 1,000 women to 43).2 Still, in 2002 (the most recent year for which data are available), about 4 teenage girls in 100 had a baby.
-About 17 percent of teen mothers go on to have a second baby within three years after the birth of their first baby.1
-Teen mothers are more likely than mothers over age 20 to give birth prematurely (before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy). In 2002, the 7,315 girls under age 15 who gave birth were more than twice as likely to deliver prematurely than women ages 30 to 34 (21 vs. 9 percent).2 Babies born too soon face an increased risk of newborn health problems and even death, as well as lasting disabilities.
-Teens too often have poor eating habits, neglect to take their vitamins, and may smoke, drink alcohol and take drugs, increasing the risk that their babies will be born with health problems. Studies also show that teens are less likely than older women to be of adequate pre-pregnancy weight and/or to gain an adequate amount of weight during pregnancy (25 to 35 pounds is recommended for women of normal weight). Low weight gain increases the risk of having a low-birthweight baby (less than 5½ pounds).
-Pregnant teens are more likely to smoke than pregnant women over age 25. In 2002, 13.4 percent of pregnant teens ages 15 to 17 and 18.2 percent of those ages 18 to 19 smoked, compared to 11.4 of all pregnant women.2 Smoking doubles a woman’s risk of having a low-birthweight baby, and also increases the risk of pregnancy complications, premature birth and stillbirth.
-Pregnant teens are least likely of all maternal age groups to get early and regular prenatal care. In 2002, 6.6 percent of mothers ages 15 to 19 years received late or no prenatal care (compared to 3.6 percent for all ages).2
-A teenage mother is at greater risk than women over age 20 for pregnancy complications such as premature labor, anemia and high blood pressure. These risks are even greater for teens who are under 15 years old.2 These youngest mothers also may be more than twice as likely to die of pregnancy complications than mothers ages 20 to 24.3
-Three million teens are affected by sexually transmitted diseases annually, out of a total of 12 million cases reported. These include chlamydia (which can cause sterility), syphilis (which can cause blindness, maternal death, and death of the infant) and HIV (the virus which causes AIDS, which may be fatal to the mother and infant).4
-In 2002, 9.6 percent of mothers ages 15 to 19 years had a low-birthweight baby (under 5.5 pounds), compared to 7.8 percent for mothers of all ages. The risk is higher for younger mothers: 11.3 percent of 15-year-old mothers had a low-birthweight baby in 2002 (18,703 girls this age gave birth, and 2,112 had low birthweight babies), compared to 8.9 percent of women aged 19 (168,111 births, with 14,920 of low birthweight).2
-Low-birthweight babies may have organs that are not fully developed. This can lead to lung problems such as respiratory distress syndrome, or bleeding in the brain, vision loss and serious intestinal problems.
-Low-birthweight babies are more than 20 times as likely to die in their first year of life as normal-weight babies.
-Teen mothers are more likely to drop out of high school than girls who delay childbearing. A 1997 study showed that only 41 percent of teenagers who have children before age 18 go on to graduate from high school compared to 61 percent of teens from similar social and economic backgrounds who did not give birth until ages 20 or 21.5
-With her education cut short, a teenage mother may lack job skills, making it hard for her to find and keep a job. A teenage mother may become financially dependent on her family or on public assistance. Teen mothers are more likely to live in poverty than women who delay childbearing, and over 75 percent of all unmarried teen mothers go on welfare within 5 years of the birth of their first child.5
-Teens may not have good parenting skills, or have the social support systems to help them deal with the stress of raising an infant.
-A child born to an unmarried teenage high school dropout is 10 times as likely as other children to be living in poverty at ages 8 to 12.6
-A child born to a teenage mother is 50 percent more likely to repeat a grade in school, and is more likely to perform poorly on standardized tests and drop out before finishing high school.5

http://www.marchofdimes.com/professionals/681_1159.asp

[princess*missy]

yes. i think its stupid.
http://www.marchofdimes.com/professionals/681_1159.asp

awesome research!... maybe i should show this to her..... especially the one about the premature one.