The Negative Effects Of Teenage Pregnancy

Each year, almost 1 million teenage women become pregnant (ages 15-19). Most of these teenagers are not aware of all the negative effects pregnancy can have. The most crucial of these negative effects are: the physical effects, the emotional effects, and the social effects on the mother. Teenage pregnancy introduces many new physical effects on the young woman. It usually begins with morning sickness for some and a major change in the woman’s body image. She will begin to feel self-conscious about her weight gain. In most cases the girl is not used to getting “fat.” She thinks that she will always be skinny, but pregnancy shows her that she will not be skinny forever. Her body has never had these changes before and she begins to feel unhappy

All kinds of feelings will arise and it can and will get very overwhelming for the young girl. The girls that once thought having sex was fun will start to regret ever having sex. When teens have sex, they usually do not think about the consequences; that is when they go wrong. There are many consequences when a guy and girl have sex, but the major one is becoming pregnant. They do not realize that they could be making a child, and their life is changing forever in that moment of “fun.” The girl then feels guilty like, she knows she has done something that she should not have done. She feels that she is too young to have a child at such a young age. She wishes she would not have had sex at such a young age. She wants to give her child the best, but how can she when she is actually still a child herself? While she is full of guilt, she can start feeling depressed. Now the young girl feels guilty and has emotions that are signs of depression. Depression is a cause of grief. It is similar to guilt, but a much sadder and gloomier state. When a person is depressed, they usually do not want to be around anyone or have anything to do with anyone, sometimes not even the child they are carrying in their womb. They are normally really quiet and private. The girl has many feelings like whether she should keep her child, give it up for adoption, or abort the child (Valdez). Teenage girls already have enough

Social effects are what most people know as life-changing moments. The first life-changing moment that young mother’s face is whether or not to finish their high school education. They feel like all the pressure is on them and they are the center of attention at school. When the girls’ friends find out that she is pregnant, they begin to gossip about her. The “friends” that she thought would always be there for her, disappear. They no longer want anything to do with her because she is pregnant, and they have nothing in common. She will have no free time to do her homework with a child, and she has lost most of her friends, so she makes the decision to drop out of high school (Aburto). According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, only 51 percent of teenage mothers earn a high school diploma, while 89 percent of girls who did not get pregnant stayed in school (Marshall). In some cases the teenage mother gets a GED to say she at least completed something. Once the girl has received her GED, she has a better chance of getting a job. With the girl having zero college education, and only a GED, it will be hard for her to find a job that pays enough to support her family. Studies show that most teenagers who get pregnant are, already at or below the poverty levels, but teen pregnancy does not cause poverty (Opposing Viewpoints 22-23). She will have to rely on minimal wage to