Chapter 2 Review of Related Study

CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF RELATED STUDY

2.1 TEENAGE PREGNANCY Teenage pregnancy is formally defined as a pregnancy in a young woman who has not reached her 20th birthday when the pregnancy ends, regardless of whether the woman is married or is legally an adult (age 14 to 21, depending on the country). In everyday speech, the speaker is usually referring to unmarried minors who become pregnant unintentionally.

The sexual revolution has ushered in a period in which the average adolescent experiences tremendous pressures to have sexual experiences of all kinds. Filipino teens get a higher exposure to sex from the Internet, magazines, TV shows, movies and other media than decades ago, yet without any corresponding increase in information on how to handle the input. So kids are pretty much left to other kids for opinions and value formation when it comes to sex.

Sexual misinformation is therefore equally shared in the group. Parents at home and teachers in school feel equally inadequate or uneasy to discuss the topic of sex with youngsters. The problem mounts because the barkada (gang) has a more profound influence than parents do and they exert pressure and expect the adolescent to conform to the rest of them.

In fact, female adolescents whose friends engage in sexual behavior were found to be more likely to do the same compared to those who do not associate with such peers. If the teen perceives her peers to look negatively at premarital sex, she was more likely to start sex at a later age.

Teenage Pregnancy: End of the road or Start of a New Life

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NUMBERS

Statistics in the United States show that each year, almost 1 million teenage women10 percent of all women aged 15-19 and 19 percent of those who have had sexual intercourse become pregnant and one-fourth of teenage mothers have a second child within two years of their first.

In the Philippines, according to the 2002 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study by the University of the Philippines Population Institute (Uppi) and the Demographic Research and Development Foundation, 26 percent of our Filipino youth nationwide from ages 15 to 25 admitted to having a premarital sex experience. Whats worse is that 38 percent of our youth are already in a live-in arrangement.

The 1998 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) reveals that 3.6 million of our teenagers (thats a whopping 5.2 percent of our population!) got pregnant. In 92 percent of these teens, the pregnancy was unplanned, and the majority, 78 percent, did not even use contraceptives the first time they had sex. Many of the youth are clueless that even on a single intercourse, they could wind up pregnant.

2.2 CAUSE OF EARLY PREGNANCY

In some societies, early marriage and traditional gender roles are important factors in the rate of teenage pregnancy. For example, in some sub-Saharan African countries, early pregnancy is often seen as a blessing because it is proof of the young woman's fertility. In the Indian subcontinent, early marriage and pregnancy is more common in traditional rural communities compared to the rate in cities. The lack of education on safe sex, whether its from parents, Teenage Pregnancy: End of the road or Start of a New Life

Chapter 2 Review of Related Study

schools, or otherwise, is a cause of teenage pregnancy. Many teenagers are not taught about methods of birth control and how to deal with peers who pressure them into having sex before they are ready. Many pregnant teenagers do not have any cognition of the central facts of sexuality. Some teens have said to be pressured into having sex with their boyfriend when the teen was young and yet no one had taught these teens how to deal with this pressure or to say "no". 2.2.1 SEXUALITY According to information available from the Guttmacher Institute, sex by age 20 is the normal age across the world, and countries with low levels of adolescent pregnancy accept sexual relationships among teenagers and provide comprehensive and balanced information about sexuality 2.2.2 CONTRACEPTION Adolescents may lack knowledge of, or access to, conventional methods of preventing pregnancy, as they may be too embarrassed or frightened to seek such information. Contraception for teenagers presents a huge challenge for the clinician. In 1998, the government set a target to halve the under-18 pregnancy rate by 2010. The Teenage Pregnancy Strategy (TPS) was established to achieve this. The pregnancy rate in this group, although falling, rose slightly in 2007, to 41.7 per 1000 women.

2.2.3 AGE DISCREPANCY IN RELATIONSHIPS According to the conservative lobbying organization Family Research Council, studies in the US indicate that age discrepancy between the teenage girls and the men who impregnate them is Teenage Pregnancy: End of the road or Start of a New Life

Chapter 2 Review of Related Study

an important contributing factor. Teenage girls in relationships with older boys, and in particular with adult men, are more likely to become pregnant than teenage girls in relationships with boys their own age. They are also more likely to carry the baby to term rather than have an abortion. A review of California's 1990 vital statistics found that men older than high school age fathered 77 percent of all births to high school-aged girls (ages 1618), and 51 percent of births to junior high school-aged girls (15 and younger). Men over age 25 fathered twice as many children of teenage mothers than boys under age 18, and men over age 20 fathered five times as many children of junior high school-aged girls as did junior high school-aged boys. 2.2.4 SEXUAL ABUSE Studies have found that between 11 and 20 percent of pregnancies in teenagers are a direct result of rape, while about 60 percent of teenage mothers had unwanted sexual experiences preceding their pregnancy. Before age 15, a majority of first-intercourse experiences among females are reported to be non-voluntary; the Guttmacher Institute found that 60 percent of girls who had sex before age 15 were coerced by males who on average were six years their senior. One in five teenage fathers admitted to forcing girls to have sex with them. 2.2.5 DATING VIOLENCE Studies have indicated that adolescent girls are often in abusive relationships at the time of their conceiving. They have also reported that knowledge of their pregnancy has often intensified violent and controlling behaviors on part of their boyfriends. Women under age 18 are twice as likely to be beaten by their child's father than women over age 18. 2.2.6 SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS Teenage pregnancy has been defined predominantly within the research field and among social agencies as a social problem. A hospital-based cohort study was undertaken over 4 months Teenage Pregnancy: End of the road or Start of a New Life

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among women admitted to a rural hospital in West Bengal. The study cohort consisted of teenage mothers between 1519 years old and a control cohort of mothers between 2024 years old. Data included demographic variables, available medical records, and complications viz. anemia, preterm delivery, and low birth weight. Anemia was defined as a hemoglobin level below 10 gm% during the last trimester of pregnancy, preterm delivery was defined as occurring within 37 weeks of gestation, and low birth weight was defined as babies weighing less than 2500 grams at birth. 2.2.7 CHILDHOOD ENVIRONMENT Women exposed to abuse, domestic violence, and family strife in childhood are more likely to become pregnant as teenagers, and the risk of becoming pregnant as a teenager increases with the number of adverse childhood experiences. According to a 2004 study, one-third of teenage pregnancies could be prevented by eliminating exposure to abuse, violence, and family strife. 2.2.8 MEDIA INFLUENCE A study conducted in 2006 found that adolescents who were more exposed to sexuality in the media were also more likely to engage in sexual activity themselves.

2.3 RISKS OF EARLY PREGNANCY

There are many reasons teen pregnancies should be avoided. Heres a low down on the facts:

Teenage Pregnancy: End of the road or Start of a New Life

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RISK FOR MALNUTRITION

Teenage mothers tend to have poor eating habits and are less likely to daily multivitamins to maintain adequate nutrition during

take

recommended

pregnancy. They are also more likely

to smoke, drink or take drugs during pregnancy, which can cause health problems for the baby.

RISK FOR INADEQUATE PRENATAL CARE

Teenage mothers are less likely to seek regular prenatal care which is monitoring the growth of the fetus; keeping the mothers weight in check; mother on nutrition and how she should take care of pregnancy. According to the American Medical herself to

essential and ensure advising a

for the

healthy

Association, babies born to women who do

not have regular prenatal care are 4 times more likely to die before the age of 1 year.

RISK FOR ABORTION

Unplanned pregnancies lead to a higher rate of abortions. In the United

States, nearly 4 in 10

teen pregnancies (excluding those ending in miscarriages) are terminated by abortion. There were about 274,000 abortions among teens in 1996.

In the Philippines, although abortion is illegal, it would shock you to know that we even have a higher abortion rate (25/1,000 women) compared to the (23/1,000 women). For sure, there are United States where abortion is legal

more abortions that happen in our country that are

not even reported. Backdoor abortions are resorted to with untrained hilots with questionable sterility procedures, increasing the possibility for tetanus poisoning and other complications. Teenage Pregnancy: End of the road or Start of a New Life

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RISK FOR FETAL DEATHS

Statistics of the Department of Health show that fetal deaths are more

likely to happen to

young mothers, and that babies born by them are likely to have low birth weight.

RISK FOR ACQUIRING CERVICAL CANCER The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is a sexually-transmitted, wart-forming virus that has been implicated in causing cancer of the cervix. This is the most common secondary to breast cancer. Women who are at who engage in sex before 18, have a cancer in women

increased risk for acquiring this are those

pregnancy at or younger than 18, or have had at

least 5 sexual partners, or have had a partner with at least 5 sexual partners.

If you start sex at an early age, you have a higher likelihood of going sexual partners before you settle down, thus increasing your virus and acquiring cervical cancer. The men can get certainly pass it on to their partners, thus something you would want to gift test women (HPV Using the

through

several

exposure to acquiring the

genital warts from this virus and can

increasing her risk for cervical cancer. Is that

to your wife with on your honeymoon? There is a way to

Digene test) but no test for the man so you cant know if you have it.

condom does not confer protection against acquiring this virus since the condom

cannot cover the testes where the warts can grow and proliferate.

Teenage Pregnancy: End of the road or Start of a New Life