The Prevention Methods Of Teenage Early Pregnancy

Teenage pregnancy is a major issue in today's society. Whereas teenage pregnancy rates have been escalating in South East Asian countries since 1990 up until 2015, there are still risks that make teenage pregnancy challenging. Most difficulties would include higher blood pressure, anemia (low iron levels), low birth weight, deformities in their bodies, higher chance of Down syndrome and premature childbearing. Pre-teens and teens ranging from ages 13-18 are already bearing babies. They surely still don't know that their age and stage in growth will have a great impact on the infant. Being a teen mom will not only affect their lives, it will also affect the infant.

Teenage pregnancy classifies women under the age of twenty. Teen moms usually come from poor or low income families. Lack of sex education and reckless sexual intercourse can also result to unplanned teenage pregnancy. Early childbearing without a fully developed maturity can lead to emotional and mental stagnation. Teen moms not only have to worry about the pressure of dealing with an infant but also the strain of going back to school and source of income. Teen mothers should seek support from their parents or from the father of the infant so that needed prenatal care can be offered.

Being a teenage mother is filled with a lot of challenges. These challenges can affect their health issues due to stress. Increased of mental health problems comes from different levels of stress that they feel when they became a teenage mother. They also experience a kind of depression called “postpartum depression”; it is a serious mental health problem that mothers feel after they gave birth. The reasons why they feel this deep depression is when they have a history of depression in their family, felt a serious kind of stress during pregnancy and experienced a medical issues while they are pregnant or after they gave birth. Lack of support in the family can also be the reason why teenage mothers experienced a serious mental health issues. Postpartum depression affects the mental, physical and behavioural changes of a woman after a child birth. Teenage mothers may also feel different types of mood which are not normal after a child birth like sad, anxious, hopeless and helpless. While caring their babies, teenage mothers neglect their physical health because their attention is more focused on their babies and not in themselves anymore. The care and effort they are giving to themselves are not enough for them to be physically healthy. They do not have time to know and to access about healthy eating. This leads to poor physical health of teenage mothers. They experience different levels of stress, and that causes teenage mothers to have a suicidal thoughts or ideation. The good thing about these health problems that teenage mothers face is that it can be cured and treated with proper medication and good counselling. Pregnancy on such young age has been pondered to be risky than pregnancy in an adult, by reason of the biological immaturity of a teenager. The premature babies and low birth weight is the primary disadvantages of it that increase the risk of the number of pregnancy complications.

According to the research of Petra Otterblad Olausson, Sven Cnttinguis and Bengt Hanglund, some reports, indicate increased danger of instant before and after birth and infant death rates in to such a young age to bear a child. The late fetal death was clarified to be as a stillbirth happening at 28 gestational weeks, where the fetus is now developing inside the womb. Neonatal death was defined as death transpiring during the first 27 completed days of life wherein the human infant was born in the 4 weeks outside the womb. And post neonatal death was clarified as death from day 28 through day 364 of life. Preterm births were rated into very preterm birth wherein it is less than and equal to 32 completed gestational weeks and moderately preterm birth with 33 to 36 weeks. The studies of the said researcher stated that in the period of 1973-1989 the late fetal and infant death rates consistently enlarged with decreasing maternal age and were always highest among the infants born to mothers with 13-15 years of age.

Furthermore, it also includes the chances of having lower levels of emotional support and cognitive stimulation, being unemployed or underemployed as a young adult. The young parent can affect her studies and have a lower school achievement and be a drop out in high school. And the possible of higher risk of cephalopelvic disproportion because the baby’s head is wider than the pelvic opening.

Teenagers must know their sexual limitations. But since a lot of teenagers can be sexually intimate with other people, there are various contraceptive techniques that can help in preventing teenage pregnancy like using birth control such as pills that have many kinds and IUD or using barrier like condoms. Practicing safe sex helps not only in preventing pregnancy but it also helps reduce the risk of getting sexually transmitted diseases or infections. It is a must that teenagers know how to use those, which is why it is very much important that sex education is taught to every teenager.

Avoiding too much alcoholic drinks and abusive drugs and immoral acts such as getting wasted can help make decisions that increase the risk of having various infections to having unwanted or teenage pregnancy. Other than that, there is also the withdrawal method or ‘coitus interruptus’, wherein the male withdraws his genitalia from the female’s genitalia prior to the female’s climax to stop the male gamete from entering the uterus or the womb of the woman. Unfortunately, this method is not always successful and the risk of getting pregnant is higher than in practicing safe sex. An alternative method called the ‘calendar method’ is when the female can theoretically know when she is able or unable to produce female gametes, whereas she can theoretically know the days of having the higher risk of getting pregnant, this is done by keeping track of the days of the menstrual cycle. Although there are many different ways to prevent a teenage pregnancy, the only one that is absolutely effective is abstaining from sex until they are married.

According to the article by Dom Galeon from Manila Bulletin entitled “The Pregnant Teen: A Growing Problem?” he stated the increasing rate of early pregnancy based from what the Department of Health (DOH) said from the latest survey of “National Demographic and Health Survey”. It indicates that at 9% rate, women ages 15 to 19 are beginning to bear a child. Comparing the statistics from the previous years, at 1990 until 2015 the difference of the rate is huge because from 6.5 to 4.7. In Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines have a high rate of early pregnancy. From World Health Organization, 4.5% of Asian girls are pregnant with their first child. While here in Philippines teenagers that had a live birth is at 7%. This is a growing problem of the country because of its continuous increasing rate of early teenage pregnancy. The factors that they consider are the lack of education about teenage pregnancy, and the poverty of the country. Based on the survey in the year 2017, 26.2 percent of teenagers who got pregnant only attained primary education, while in the collegiate level the rate is at 4 percent. The following provinces in the Philippines have a high rate of teenage pregnancy: 15.9 percent is from the Davao region which is the highest, and 11.8 percent is from the SOCCSKSARGEN region. This reflects on the primary reason many teenagers don’t finish their education. Even though private institutions and non-government agencies are on the move to lessen and abolish teenage pregnancy, it is still a woman’s decision to make.

RH Law Reproductive Health Law Act of 2012 or also known as the Republic Act of 10354 is a law that guarantees the universal access methods on fertility control, contraception, sexual education and lastly maternal care. This is the law that implies the use of family planning devices just like IUDs, condoms, and birth control pills. Family and other couples are anticipating in controlling the number of their children, timing and spacing of their births. Also, family planning can prevent sexually transmitted disease such as HIV or AIDS because family planning involves using contraceptives which can lower the chance of adapting a disease. The law is also implemented to prevent the fast growing of the population. One of the best reasons why family planning is needed is because family planning can prevent abortion and can possibly save a life of an unborn child. Also this is an act providing a comprehensive policy on reproductive health, responsible parenthood, population control and other purposes. Back in 1967, the Reproductive Health Bill was proposed by 12 countries including the Philippines. The Supreme Court delayed the implementation of the RH Bill because they said that it is not constitutional and it struck down in eight provisions.

Teenage pregnancy is a common problem in a country wherein poverty is evident. Health problems and mental illnesses can be developed once a woman encounters pregnancy at a young age. The government is on the move in preventing the continuous increasing rate of the said economic problem; however, the decision is always in the woman’s hands. The lack of education about teenage pregnancy is one of the biggest reasons why teenage pregnancy is happening in the country. The lack of support and accessibility to contraceptives and family planning is a problem not just the youth faces but the government as well. Being able to conceive a child at a young age is a blessing and a dilemma at the same time, but surely, as the rates increase, the bigger the problem of every single individual will be.