Why is family planning education important to teen moms?

Many adults may think that once a teen has gotten pregnant, she learned from her mistake and therefore will not become pregnant during the rest of her teenage years. Although this is true for some young moms, the reality is it is not true for all pregnant and parenting teenage mothers. According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, "nearly one-quarter of teen mothers have a second birth before age 20."

From July 2008 to March 2010, I provided case management and life skills education to approximately 80 pregnant and parenting teenagers in Camden, NJ. 26 of those teen moms had more than 1 child & 6 out the 26 mothers had 3 children. Keep in mind, these numbers do not reflect any other unintended pregnancies, which resulted in miscarriage or abortion. All of the mothers were under the age of 21.  

Family planning education is just as important for parenting teens as it is for non-parenting teens. Any program that provides services to young moms should also consider implementing a family planning component. If that is not an option, I would highly recommend that the program bring in a trained sexuality health educator or staff should encourage clients to discuss family planning with their ob/gyn provider. By taking these steps, the program can:

1. Help teen moms decide if and when they want to have another baby. The teen moms can then begin to formulate a plan as to how they will prevent pregnancy until they're ready.
2. Reduce the effects of poverty on the family.
3. Help her set more attainable goals for her and her family, which can lead to self-sufficiency.

Teenager fakes pregnancy as part of her senior project

Gaby Rodriquez, a 17 year old high school senior, created an amazing experiment for her "Stereotypes, Rumors, and Statistics Project." She decided, with the support of her school's principal, superintendent, mother, boyfriend, and a few others, to fake a pregnancy for 6 months as a class project.

So what did Gaby learn from this? Pregnant teens often feel alienated from their friends, alone, and ashamed. Even though she wasn't pregnant, Gaby felt this way because of what other people had to say, such as "She's irresponsible," "she won't be able to go to college," "it was bound to happen," "I knew she was going to get pregnant," and even "she ruined her life."

Now that the project is over, she plans on sharing her findings with community leaders to provide better support for pregnant teens. Gaby made the difficult decision to spend almost her entire senior year of high school "pregnant" in order to shed light on teen pregnancy and I'm really looking forward to learning more from her research.

For more information about Gaby's story, click here.

Don't Take It Personally: How to Adjust Your Mindset When Working with Challenging At-risk Youth

Over the years, I have learned that many at-risk youth bring their own personalities, experiences, motives, etc. with them when they are in a program. You never know what type of client you are going to end up with, which certainly makes things exciting, interesting, and challenging.

At first, you take time to get to know your teen clients and build a rapport with them. You don't really know them in the beginning, but you start  to get a sense that you're making some sort of positive impact in their lives...or at least you hope that you are! Then, some of them throw you a curve ball.

When I was new to the direct service field, I would get upset when my clients didn't follow through on important tasks that would help them reach their goals. Or even worse, I'd get frustrated and angry if I felt like I was being played. I would think to myself, "how could they do this to me? I'm here to help them meet their goals."

Looking back, I noticed this was a bit self-centered. Once I realized what was going on, I adjusted my attitude to better understand my clients. I learned how to not take their attitudes, moods, and behaviors personally. Like everybody, they've had their own life experiences which shape them AND they continue to have experiences simultaneously while they're in the program. When you take all of this into account, as a professional, you can be more realistic about your expectations of the program participants. Your expectations should still be high, but make them reasonable and attainable for the teens. The "pick yourself up by your boot strap" mentality does not always work. Be there to guide them and know that they won't always follow through. The important thing to remember is that you must have a good relationship already set in place to encourage them to get over whatever it is stopping them from getting to the next level.

It's your choice as to how you handle challenging clients. My advice is to not take what they say, do, or don't do personally. At the end of the day, it has nothing to do with you.