Introduction
Adolescent or teenage pregnancy is defined as a pregnancy in females under the age of 20 years. Teenage pregnancies are a global problem that occurs in middle, low, and high-income countries. However, throughout the world, teenage pregnancies are most prevalent to arise in marginalized communities, usually driven by a lack of employment opportunities and education as well as poverty (Jones et al., 1985). Specifically, in Africa, teenage pregnancy has been a significant public health issue. This is because the region is particularly known for the high rate of child and maternal mortality and morbidity. Approximately twenty-one million girls of fifteen to nineteen years old every year in developing countries become pregnant, and out of these, twelve million among them give birth.
Possible Reasons for Teenage Pregnancy
According to some global cultures, traditions and customs may result in early marriages, which, therefore, would lead to teenage pregnancies. In this regard, pregnancy is allowed, and most of them are intentional (Paranjothy et al., 2009). These cases most occur in developing countries like Sub-Saharan, Africa, and India. However, in developed nations, adolescent pregnancies are mostly unintentional, and they often happen because of a variety of reasons which include;
Drugs and Alcohol
During the adolescence period, most of the teenagers experiment and drink alcohol frequently with their acquaintances and friends at parties and social gatherings. However, in this case, these teenagers do not realize the consequences of alcohol and drugs that may have on the working of the brain, particularly the impacts of heavy drinking and consumption of alcohol during one single sitting (Turner et al., 1990). Experimenting drugs and excessive drinking may lead to unintentional and unwanted pregnancies. These occurrences greatly impact the ability of the teenagers to think logically and generally carry out thinking processes hence increasing the chances that they will engage in unsafe and unprotected sexual activity, thus leading to early pregnancy.
Low Socioeconomic Status
The majority of pregnant teenagers come from low socio-economic status families. While growing up, these teens come from such families suffering from poverty and lack the necessary resources needed to raise these teens. As a result, they have low educational successes and goals due to a lack of needed involvement from their parents. They are then predisposed to the adverse environment making them less ambitious to excel in school and may start making friendships with other teenagers going through the same struggles (Cunnington, 2001). These groups begin to drink alcohol and experiment with drugs making them not succeed in school. Often, low socio-economic status families are prevalent, and it predisposes teens to be troubling and unsafe conditions. Lack of knowledge and education about reproduction makes teenagers engage in unsafe and unprotected sexual activity since they do not know about contraceptives or any other options to explore. Simply, they engage in sexual intercourse at very young ages with multiple partners, which leads to high chances of early pregnancies.
Sexual Abuse and Peer Pressure
Peer pressure is the cause of sexual abuse. Teens may be, at times, forced or pressured by an older male person to have sexual activity. Out of fear, the young females feel pressured to engage in unsafe and unprotected sex without any option to show their "true feelings" and "love" for the other partner. The male partner may manipulate the female partner to have unsafe and unprotected sex, which may result in unintended teenage pregnancy (Chen et al., 2007). Also, early sexual abuse leads to early pregnancy. Unfortunately, children have been abused sexually by family members or other predators before entering the puberty stage. These teens are unable to let their trusted adults or any other person to know about the situation because of fear of being abused by the predators. Furthermore, these situations impact the teens in their adolescence and lead to higher chances of early pregnancies.
Media Influence
Social media shows have a large influence on early pregnancy. Often, these shows glamorize pregnancy and, in essence, hide the real challenges associated with pregnancies that encourage teenagers to be pregnant. Some female teenagers become pregnant to just only drop out of school to pressurize their parents to more profound commitment (Anderson, 1991). Moreover, rebellion is another cause of teenage pregnancy. Teens may decide to become pregnant just to deem themselves and show their independence as having control over their own lives. Media such as television and radio glorify the essence of becoming pregnant through the promotion of these female teens having more responsibility, adult lifestyle, as well as decision making power.
Reason to Why Teenagers Choose to Have Babies
The desire to have babies or become pregnant among teenage girls is prevalent. The desire is an indication of various reasons that are complex to understand. These reasons vary among teens, just like for older women in the community. For instance, some teens between eighteen and nineteen years old might decide to have a child or get pregnant because they deem to be in a stable relationship and turn want to start their own families. Over the decades ago, this is the norm among this age group (Kumar et al., 2007). Other reasons include; getting up in an awkward moment, not thinking logically, being embarrassed to ask her partner to use contraception, believe that they could not become pregnant, and feeling forced to have unsafe sex. Most teenagers have their time to decide whether to continue with a pregnancy or not. In a sense, that teenager who chooses to continue with such a pregnancy is because these teens should take full responsibility and, in the end, be a nice mum. Despite circumstances where the pregnancy was unplanned, over time, the mother tends to grow to need the baby.
However, there is a misconception and assumption that teenagers who get pregnant receive housing as well as other benefits. This leads to early pregnancies and the desire to have babies among many young people under the age of twenty years. Another reason which makes teenagers have babies or get pregnant is the need to move away or escape from such unpleasant family conditions. Some teens may decide to move away from their families because of a lack of support from their parents to start their own lives elsewhere (Trussell, 1988). In this case, the only thing that they can do is get pregnant. Furthermore, the desire to have babies among teenage girls is the urge and need to be loved by someone else unconditionally. Even though parents love their children, they do so conditionally. However, teenage girls need some unconditional love from someone they loved most. In this regard, these teenagers find their male partners to have unprotected sex intending to have babies hence avoiding the need not to get pregnant.
What makes having a baby desirable, and for whom?
The most important and desirable thing to have a baby or become pregnant is the need to be loved unconditionally by someone else as well as the need to start one's family. There is a particular kind of bond between the child and parent that is very powerful. The unconditional love which a parent has for their children is a motivator to have more children (Kumar et al., 2007). Parents want to feel strong emotions as well as to share those kinds of emotions with relevance to their children. Research shows that many females decide to have a baby when they are in stable relationships with their partners. In this case, they are willing to have unprotected sexual activity intending to get pregnant. Additionally, many people desire to have a baby to start a new social life. Over time, some people may feel bored with their old friends and may decide to edge them out of their lives and start their new way of life.
Moreover, some consider children as a form of laughter and a sense of purpose, hence the desire to have such children. Children are not only beautiful, but they are also funny. Parents believe that surrounding yourself with these kinds of creatures will make your every day awesome and an aesthetic delight. In this case, partners in their relationships will, fortunately, make a wise decision to have a baby. Nonetheless, children make their parents stop thinking about throwing themselves under a bus. In life, there are philosophical questions and crises which come to every individual about meaninglessness, life, and death. Having children will help parents to stop behaving in this manner (Anderson, 1991). The idea of bringing other human beings into existence and joy of seeing that specific person going through life experiences is another significant reason why partners desire to have children. Usually, parents love to see their children growing up and becoming productive members of society. According to societal customs and norms, people want to have children who will carry on the name of the family as well as family values. This applies to the name of the father, but the main point is that prospective parents love to continue in the historical lineage of the family. These people will find joy and love knowing that their children will have their last name of the family and will keep the family going.
Even though having children is the most desirable thing to do in life existence, not all people can bear the cost of bringing up those children. Even though there exist teenage pregnancies, only people of twenty years of age and above are particularly deemed to be able to take care and bear the cost of bringing up these children (Chen et al., 2007). For many couples, the economic impact is not whatsoever feasible. Having children, in this case, would cause a lot of stress to the parents to provide economically for that particular child. Therefore, only mature couples of twenty years old and above who are financially and economically stable are desirable to have a child.
Differences in teenage pregnancy rates as a function of race, socio-economic status, geography, history, or nationality.
Historically, teenage pregnancy involving teens between the age of sixteen and nineteen in previous centuries was far more than normal and very common in most developed countries in the twentieth century. For instance, among the Norwegian women who were born in the 1950s, approximately a quarter of them became teenage mums in the early 1970s (Cunnington, 2001). The rates, however, decline steadily across the developed countries in the twentieth century. Among the Norwegian women born in the 1970s, not more than ten percent became pregnant, and the rates have exponentially declined since then.
In terms of geographical location, a teenage pregnancy rate is high in Sub-Saharan Africa and India, where females tend to have children at an early age. For example, eighty-seven percent of women in Niger were married, and out of this, fifty-three percent had already given birth before attaining eighteen years old. In India, early marriages and pregnancy are most prevalent in rural areas than in urban areas. The latest research findings show that early pregnancy is very high, with about sixty-two pregnant women out of every one thousand women (Turner et al., 1990). India is the fastest-growing in terms of population in the world, with an increase in teenage pregnancy. Socio-economic status of a particular country is associated with teenage pregnancy. For instance, poverty is directly associated with an increase in the rates of early pregnancy.
