Teenage birth rates in the United States rose in 2007 for the second year in a row. These increases follow a continuous decline between 1991 and 2005. Teenage birth rates in the United States are high, exceeding those in most developed countries.
High teen birth rates are an important concern because teen mothers and their babies face increased risks to their health, and their opportunities to build a future are diminished.
Here are some important facts about teen pregnancy:
More than 10 percent of all U.S. births in 2006 were to mothers under age 20. Most teenage births (about 67 percent) are to girls ages 18 and 19. The pregnancy rate for teenagers fell 40 percent between 1990 and 2005 (from 116.8 to 70.6 per 1,000). However, in 2005, about 725,000 teens ages 15 to 19 became pregnant, and about 415,000 give birth.
About 3 in 10 teenage girls become pregnant at least once before age 20. The teenage birth rate increased in 2006 and 2007. Between 2005 and 2007, the rate rose 5 percent (from 41 to 42.5 per 1,000 women). This increase follows a 14-year decline between 1991 and 2005, when the rate fell by one-third (from 62 to 41 per 1,000 women). In 2007, about 4 in 100 teenage girls had a baby. About 1 in 4 teen mothers under age 18 have a second baby within 2 years after the birth of their first baby.
Teen mothers are more likely than mothers over age 20 to give birth prematurely (before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy). Between 2003 and 2005, preterm birth rates averaged 14.5 percent for women under age 20 compared to 11.9 percent for women ages 20 to 29. Babies born prematurely face an increased risk of newborn health problems, long-term disabilities and even death.
Taken from The March of Dimes
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Former teen parents share insight with current teens
Reality didn't hit them until it had already happened. By then both high-schoolers had children.
Now 27 and working with current high schoolers and teen parents through Geauga Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Megan Bond and Chad Simonyi were fortunate to have supportive families.
But Bond had no sex education in school at all, likely the result of a move; Simonyi learned only the "mechanical aspects of pregnancy"; neither had "the talk" with their own parents; and from the trenches, both see parents still aren't communicating with their kids.
This means teens who are too afraid of being judged to raise the topic themselves instead get misinformation from peers or the Internet.
To push the issue, Bond and Simonyi speak to teens and parents side by side during TPP's voluntary "Dear Mom and Dad" events.
"I always tell parents to ease into it, talk to them at an age-appropriate level, and you have to put your uncomfort behind you and just do it," said Simonyi, who had his son with his ex-wife at 18 years old.
At the time Simonyi was being home-schooled in Chardon and already had his ship-out date for Army basic training.
"But I was determined to make it work, to try my best," Simonyi said.
His son, Christopher, is now almost 9, and he cares for him most of the time in Middlefield — a concept that baffles some high-schoolers.
"Students expect him to just pay child support," Bond said.
"No, he makes breakfast, he packs lunches, he puts him on the school bus."
Bond, meanwhile, said TPP Director Karen Lackey changed her life just months after she dropped out of Chardon High School to give birth at 16 years old.
Lackey was just starting TPP at the time, and she asked Bond to teach other teens.
There was a time when the teenage Bond worked three jobs to provide for little Steven, now 11. But she went on to earn her General Educational Development degree, as did Simonyi, and now works full-time for TPP as a classroom instructor for grades five through 10. She also counsels 16 current and former teen parents ages 15 to 31 in Geauga County, most of whom also left school to be parents.
More and more, she said, grandparents are either parenting their grandchildren, while teen parents take no responsibility, or they are kicking teen parents to the curb.
Bond and Simonyi hope teenagers feel empowered by their real-life stories about missed trips to the mall, diapers, hours of cartoons and interrupted showers.
"I was a smart kid, but I never realized that it was really a choice," Simonyi said. "You really hope that your message gets across to a lot of kids, but you never really know what kind of impact you have when you leave the room."
"I do," Bond cut in, then added, " 'cause I'm there for after-instructing. Teen parents have a huge impact on our high schoolers. Every time they leave it's, 'Wow, I didn't think about that, all the things they have to go through, and I need to consider this.' Especially when I say, 'I just had to sign her out of high school — she's missing three classes to be here to talk to you.' "
By Sandra M. Klepach
Now 27 and working with current high schoolers and teen parents through Geauga Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Megan Bond and Chad Simonyi were fortunate to have supportive families.
But Bond had no sex education in school at all, likely the result of a move; Simonyi learned only the "mechanical aspects of pregnancy"; neither had "the talk" with their own parents; and from the trenches, both see parents still aren't communicating with their kids.
This means teens who are too afraid of being judged to raise the topic themselves instead get misinformation from peers or the Internet.
To push the issue, Bond and Simonyi speak to teens and parents side by side during TPP's voluntary "Dear Mom and Dad" events.
"I always tell parents to ease into it, talk to them at an age-appropriate level, and you have to put your uncomfort behind you and just do it," said Simonyi, who had his son with his ex-wife at 18 years old.
At the time Simonyi was being home-schooled in Chardon and already had his ship-out date for Army basic training.
"But I was determined to make it work, to try my best," Simonyi said.
His son, Christopher, is now almost 9, and he cares for him most of the time in Middlefield — a concept that baffles some high-schoolers.
"Students expect him to just pay child support," Bond said.
"No, he makes breakfast, he packs lunches, he puts him on the school bus."
Bond, meanwhile, said TPP Director Karen Lackey changed her life just months after she dropped out of Chardon High School to give birth at 16 years old.
Lackey was just starting TPP at the time, and she asked Bond to teach other teens.
There was a time when the teenage Bond worked three jobs to provide for little Steven, now 11. But she went on to earn her General Educational Development degree, as did Simonyi, and now works full-time for TPP as a classroom instructor for grades five through 10. She also counsels 16 current and former teen parents ages 15 to 31 in Geauga County, most of whom also left school to be parents.
More and more, she said, grandparents are either parenting their grandchildren, while teen parents take no responsibility, or they are kicking teen parents to the curb.
Bond and Simonyi hope teenagers feel empowered by their real-life stories about missed trips to the mall, diapers, hours of cartoons and interrupted showers.
"I was a smart kid, but I never realized that it was really a choice," Simonyi said. "You really hope that your message gets across to a lot of kids, but you never really know what kind of impact you have when you leave the room."
"I do," Bond cut in, then added, " 'cause I'm there for after-instructing. Teen parents have a huge impact on our high schoolers. Every time they leave it's, 'Wow, I didn't think about that, all the things they have to go through, and I need to consider this.' Especially when I say, 'I just had to sign her out of high school — she's missing three classes to be here to talk to you.' "
By Sandra M. Klepach
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Truth about teen pregnancy, one teen's tough journey
Many parents don’t think their teenagers are having sex, but statistics show, they are. Half of kids in high school are sexually active and almost half of them aren’t using condoms or protection.
"I thought the same thing. Oh, this one time, I'll be safe. And it just so happened that one time is all it took."
Kayla Wright got pregnant with her daughter, Adalia, when she was 17-years-old.
"When I found out I was pregnant, my whole life changed. Everything changed," Kayla shares. "I would rather sleep out on the streets than stay at home. I ended up sleeping in a garage."
Kayla’s childhood came to a screeching stop the second she found out she was having a baby. And she’s not alone. About 2,000 teens become pregnant every day in the United States.
May 5 is the annual National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Three out of ten girls will be pregnant by the time they’re 20-years-old. And people having unprotected sex regularly have an 85% chance of getting pregnant within one year.
"If I had to just tell all the teenage girls and the boys, just worry about school. Worry about getting through life without having to raise another child,” Kayla says with tears swelling her eyes. Bringing somebody else into the world that you already can't afford, it's not very fun."
Kayla got the help and love she needed at Hannah’s House in Mishawaka. Hannah’s House is a place that welcomes and nurtures pregnant women, mostly teens, who have nowhere else to go.
"A baby is for real. A baby is forever," explains Karen DeLucenay, from Hannah’s House. "If you have some goals in life, that you maybe want to do college, you want to someday be a mom later in life, just hold onto that and hold onto your own values. Be able to say that word, 'No' or 'I'm not ready now.' Because that's okay. That's okay to do."
Hannah’s House provides the young women with shelter, food and baby supplies. But they also learn responsibility and self-confidence.
"Teens are not really ready and prepared to know what it's going to be like to be a mom. Maybe they're excited that they're pregnant but they don't understand that it's going to take a lot of work. So we're here to help them with that," DeLucenay explains. "For the women we see, a lot of them are hoping for the daddy to be involved with their life and they're going to be a family and for a lot of these young women, they find that that's not going to happen. And that reality that he's not going to be there and they're not going to be a family, it hits real hard."
Pregnant girls in the South Bend Community School Corporation have the option of taking classes through the School Age Mothers Program. There, they take classes only with other pregnant students and get the special empathy and guidance they need.
"Along with academics, they need a lot of social support, a lot of empathy, a lot of understanding," explains Arlene Hall, School Age Mothers Program. "One of the things they need to remember is when they change their lives, they also change their parents' lives because that's there support mechanism.”
Teen pregnancies in St. Joseph County have actually gone down the last decade. In 2009, 280 teens gave birth compared to 335 in 2008, 342 in 2005 and 369 in 2000. Health officials contribute that to more awareness, education, birth control and the simple fact that people are talking more openly about sex and protection.
A resource parents and teens can use to talk about sex, pregnancy and protection is www.StayTeen.org.
By, Alana Greenfogel
WNDU.com
"I thought the same thing. Oh, this one time, I'll be safe. And it just so happened that one time is all it took."
Kayla Wright got pregnant with her daughter, Adalia, when she was 17-years-old.
"When I found out I was pregnant, my whole life changed. Everything changed," Kayla shares. "I would rather sleep out on the streets than stay at home. I ended up sleeping in a garage."
Kayla’s childhood came to a screeching stop the second she found out she was having a baby. And she’s not alone. About 2,000 teens become pregnant every day in the United States.
May 5 is the annual National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Three out of ten girls will be pregnant by the time they’re 20-years-old. And people having unprotected sex regularly have an 85% chance of getting pregnant within one year.
"If I had to just tell all the teenage girls and the boys, just worry about school. Worry about getting through life without having to raise another child,” Kayla says with tears swelling her eyes. Bringing somebody else into the world that you already can't afford, it's not very fun."
Kayla got the help and love she needed at Hannah’s House in Mishawaka. Hannah’s House is a place that welcomes and nurtures pregnant women, mostly teens, who have nowhere else to go.
"A baby is for real. A baby is forever," explains Karen DeLucenay, from Hannah’s House. "If you have some goals in life, that you maybe want to do college, you want to someday be a mom later in life, just hold onto that and hold onto your own values. Be able to say that word, 'No' or 'I'm not ready now.' Because that's okay. That's okay to do."
Hannah’s House provides the young women with shelter, food and baby supplies. But they also learn responsibility and self-confidence.
"Teens are not really ready and prepared to know what it's going to be like to be a mom. Maybe they're excited that they're pregnant but they don't understand that it's going to take a lot of work. So we're here to help them with that," DeLucenay explains. "For the women we see, a lot of them are hoping for the daddy to be involved with their life and they're going to be a family and for a lot of these young women, they find that that's not going to happen. And that reality that he's not going to be there and they're not going to be a family, it hits real hard."
Pregnant girls in the South Bend Community School Corporation have the option of taking classes through the School Age Mothers Program. There, they take classes only with other pregnant students and get the special empathy and guidance they need.
"Along with academics, they need a lot of social support, a lot of empathy, a lot of understanding," explains Arlene Hall, School Age Mothers Program. "One of the things they need to remember is when they change their lives, they also change their parents' lives because that's there support mechanism.”
Teen pregnancies in St. Joseph County have actually gone down the last decade. In 2009, 280 teens gave birth compared to 335 in 2008, 342 in 2005 and 369 in 2000. Health officials contribute that to more awareness, education, birth control and the simple fact that people are talking more openly about sex and protection.
A resource parents and teens can use to talk about sex, pregnancy and protection is www.StayTeen.org.
By, Alana Greenfogel
WNDU.com
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Give the Gift of Change!
Since launching Former Teen Parents of America people have asked if one has to be a FTP (former teen parent) or PTP (product of a teen pregnancy) to volunteer with the organization? Absolutely not! Former Teen Parents of America is open to anyone who desires to offer a hand up and give the gift of change to single-parent students ages 12-20.
Through professional mentorship, partnerships with schools, colleges, and organizations, an annual conference, community outreach, and scholarship opportunities, Former Teen Parents of America focuses on drop-out prevention and the promotion of post-secondary education among school-age parents.
Whether it's spending time with a teen, helping to organize an event, donating financially, or participating in a community outreach, Former Teen Parents of America seeks to partner with individuals from ALL walks of life who desire to give the gift of change to young, vulnerable families.
No matter your background your investment can change a life. Join Former Teen Parents of America in this national movement for change!
Through professional mentorship, partnerships with schools, colleges, and organizations, an annual conference, community outreach, and scholarship opportunities, Former Teen Parents of America focuses on drop-out prevention and the promotion of post-secondary education among school-age parents.
Whether it's spending time with a teen, helping to organize an event, donating financially, or participating in a community outreach, Former Teen Parents of America seeks to partner with individuals from ALL walks of life who desire to give the gift of change to young, vulnerable families.
No matter your background your investment can change a life. Join Former Teen Parents of America in this national movement for change!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
School-age Parents and Education
When it comes to school-age parents and education the statistics are alarming.
Without a high school diploma it is difficult for these single-parent students to escape poverty and create long-term economic stability. Completing a certificate program, two-year or four-year degree helps them (and their child) escape poverty and build economic independence.
Do you know the facts when it comes to school-age parents and education?
• Parenthood is the leading reason why teen girls drop out of school.
• Less than half of teen mothers ever graduate from high school.
• Fewer than two percent of teen mothers earn a college degree by age 30.
• Two-thirds of families begun by a young unmarried mother are poor.
Former Teen Parents of America cares about drop-out prevention and promoting post-secondary education among school-age parents. Without an education these families remain vulnerable to chronic, generational poverty.
What can you do to help us address the drop-out rate in your community?
Without a high school diploma it is difficult for these single-parent students to escape poverty and create long-term economic stability. Completing a certificate program, two-year or four-year degree helps them (and their child) escape poverty and build economic independence.
Do you know the facts when it comes to school-age parents and education?
• Parenthood is the leading reason why teen girls drop out of school.
• Less than half of teen mothers ever graduate from high school.
• Fewer than two percent of teen mothers earn a college degree by age 30.
• Two-thirds of families begun by a young unmarried mother are poor.
Former Teen Parents of America cares about drop-out prevention and promoting post-secondary education among school-age parents. Without an education these families remain vulnerable to chronic, generational poverty.
What can you do to help us address the drop-out rate in your community?
Monday, April 12, 2010
A Dream Ends and a Vision Begins...
On Saturday, April 10th, Former Teen Parents of America had its launch meeting for the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter. Former Teen Parents (FTP's) and those who are the Product of a Teen Pregnancy (PTP's) gathered to share their stories of struggle and sacrifice, as well as success and triumph.
As the Founder and National President of Former Teen Parents of America, I experienced an unplanned pregnancy at the age of sixteen. Since graduating high school and completing a doctoral degree, I have sought to inspire school-age parents to not allow this setback to determine their future outcome. While teen pregnancy should not be worn as a badge of honor, it should also not be seen as a death sentence. Providing "success models" for these teens is important.
Former Teen Parents of America was created to address the education achievement gap among school-age parents. Focusing on drop-out prevention and the promotion of post-secondary education, Former Teen Parents of America understands that education is key to creating long-term economic stability and breaking the cycle of poverty.
Former Teen Parents of America has started a national movement, one that is committed to empowering success and creating generational change. As former teen parents of America, we are organizing for change!
Here is where a dream ends and a vision begins...
Dr. Nita Evans
Founder & National President
As the Founder and National President of Former Teen Parents of America, I experienced an unplanned pregnancy at the age of sixteen. Since graduating high school and completing a doctoral degree, I have sought to inspire school-age parents to not allow this setback to determine their future outcome. While teen pregnancy should not be worn as a badge of honor, it should also not be seen as a death sentence. Providing "success models" for these teens is important.
Former Teen Parents of America was created to address the education achievement gap among school-age parents. Focusing on drop-out prevention and the promotion of post-secondary education, Former Teen Parents of America understands that education is key to creating long-term economic stability and breaking the cycle of poverty.
Former Teen Parents of America has started a national movement, one that is committed to empowering success and creating generational change. As former teen parents of America, we are organizing for change!
Here is where a dream ends and a vision begins...
Dr. Nita Evans
Founder & National President
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