While bringing life into this world is a beautiful experience, having children before you’re ready can certainly create complications that you might not have expected.
Teenage pregnancy is more common than you might think. While some teen mothers have the support of friends and family to help them along their journey, many of them don’t. This can make an already difficult situation even harder to handle.
Whether you’re a teenager who is sexually active or someone who is already pregnant, we’re going to discuss 3 risks of teenage pregnancy to ensure you can make the best decision for your body.
Common Health Risks for Teen Mothers
Teenage mothers are more likely to experience certain health risks than mothers who are older and more prepared for the role.
Unfortunately, many teenage mothers do not get prenatal care as soon as they should. A lack of prenatal care leads to an increase in health problems during pregnancy.
For instance, one health problem that is common is anemia. Teen mothers who are younger than age 15 are especially more prone to anemia or low blood iron. But what is anemia and how does it affect pregnancy?
Anemia is a condition that leads to a hemoglobin deficiency. This causes extreme tiredness and can lead to other serious complications. The reason teens are more prone to becoming anemic during pregnancy is that adolescents generally don’t consume a healthy number of calories that are needed during their pregnancy.
Aside from anemia, teens who are pregnant also increase their risk for gestational hypertension, also known as high blood pressure. When gestational hypertension occurs, the mother can have a premature delivery or the child might have a low birth weight.
Not only that but hypertension can turn into a serious condition called preeclampsia, which puts both the mother and baby at risk.
Common Health Risks for the Baby
Teenage pregnancy also creates a considerable amount of health risks for the baby as well. Not only do pregnant teens generally have a lack of prenatal care, but statistically, pregnant teens are also more prone to drinking, smoking, and experimenting with other drugs.
All of these factors increase the risk of the baby having a low birth weight. In addition to this, pregnant teens that engage in smoking will increase the risk of pregnancy complications, premature birth, and even stillbirth.
Even just having a premature child can come with a host of complications for the baby. A premature baby is defined as a baby that is born before 37 weeks. Children who are born premature, unfortunately, miss out on a lot of growth and development that is needed to reach optimal health.
Additionally, premature babies tend to suffer health problems since their organs don’t receive all the time needed to develop. Here are just some of the complications associated with premature babies.
- Breathing problems and asthma
- Cerebral Palsy
- Severe Intestinal Problems
- Feeding difficulties
- Developmental Delay
- Hearing Problems
- Bleeding in the brain
Due to the higher risk of having a premature baby, this also means that babies will likely experience a low birth weight. Low birth weight is defined as weight less than 5.5 pounds.
When this happens, babies can develop infections or other illnesses within the first few days of their life. Other babies can even deal with lifelong disabilities and experience a delay in motor and social skills.
Socio-econmic Risks
Aside from the mother’s and baby’s health, there are other risk factors that many teen mothers face that impact their ability to raise and provide a good quality of life for their child.
Teen mothers are generally not equipped for the world as they haven’t finished high school yet or have just obtained their diploma. With that said, they likely won’t have an income that can support their needs and their child’s needs as well.
In fact, statistics show that teen mothers tend to be on welfare with 80 percent of teen mothers eventually entering the program. In addition to this, teen mothers are more prone to dropping out of high school.
Even more, fewer than 2 percent of teen mothers obtain their college degree by the age of 30 and about 25 percent of moms have their second child within 24 months of their first pregnancy.
These statistics can be quite overwhelming but it is also the reality of many teen mothers. The lack of education and income often sets a poor foundation for both the mother and child to thrive and can reduce the quality of life long term.
Get Help from an Obstetrician
For pregnant teens, building the appropriate support system as soon as possible is key to a more successful pregnancy. Most teens are not equipped with the right life skills and parenting habits needed to support a new life.
With that said, pregnant teens need to find a trusted obstetrician who can support them through their life-changing journey and ensure that they and the baby are healthy throughout the pregnancy.