Among the countless social issues of the world, teenage pregnancy holds a significant place. A female is capable of conceiving right after her first menstruation. At average, a girl gets her first period at an age of 12 or 13 years. When a girl conceives before the age of 20 years, it is known as teenage pregnancy. Most of the teenage pregnancies give rise to unpleasant circumstances, placing the pregnant teenage girl in a plight.

Causes of Teenage Pregnancies

Around the world, there are different causes behind these unplanned teenage pregnancies. Today, the rate of teenage marriages has declined to a great extent. Only a small ratio of girls is there who get pregnant in their teenage due to an early marriage. On the other hand, a larger number of teenage pregnancies owe to the heinous acts of sexual abuse.

Similarly, a large teenage population of girls put themselves in this undesirable situation themselves due to their sexual activities. This in turn is the consequence of a number of factors, such as a lack of proper sex education, unprotected sex and most importantly a lack of morality in the society at large. All these factors increase the risk of a teenage girl conceiving without her will.

Consequences of Teenage Pregnancies

Once a teenager gets positive results for a pregnancy test, she has to go through a series of unpleasant, inevitable consequences.

Denial

A phase of denial is what a teenage girl has to face after discovering her pregnancy. This happens when a girl experiences all the symptoms of early pregnancy and also knows the reason behind them, but is not ready to accept the fact that she has actually conceived. This leads to a great deal of emotional stress for her.

Coping Alone

Often girls try to cope with this stress on their own as they choose not to share the news with anyone, mostly because of the fear of being rebuked. Therefore, things become more complicated for them since this situation cannot be faced without having any support. Usually, the guy responsible for the pregnancy is also a teenager or ahs already run away, failing to provide the appropriate support.

Health Issues

Since teenage mothers-to-be may go through a long phase of denial, they do not start taking care of their health the way a pregnant woman is supposed to. Moreover, the stress also takes its toll on their health.

Future Issues

Teenagers always have big future plans for themselves. However, they have to make a lot of sacrifices in order to fulfill the responsibilities of parenthood. They might have to drop out of school or college in order to take care of the baby once it has been born. Moreover, they also have to focus on their financial status in order to support the baby. Therefore, a teenager has to change her (and in some cases his) entire future plan in order to accommodate this unwanted, yet huge change in her/his life.

Family Support

Whatever the reason behind a teenage pregnancy may be, what is done cannot be undone! So, instead of thinking that what went wrong, face the reality and try to find ways of coping with it. The family, specially the parents of the teenagers, should provide their complete emotional and financial support to their kids.