Question

Adolescent pregnancy is viewed as a high-risk situation because it poses serious health risks for the mother and the baby. Describe various risk factors or precursors to adolescent pregnancy. Research community and state resources devoted in adolescent pregnancy and describe at least two of these resources. Research the teen pregnancy rates for the last 10 years for your state and community. Has this rate increased or decreased? Discuss possible reasons for an increase or decrease.

note: the community and state resources I am looking for is of Minnesota.

Answer 1

Every year, an estimated 21 million girls aged 15–19 years in developing regions become pregnant and approximately 12 million of them give birth.At least 777,000 births occur to adolescent girls younger than 15 years in developing countries.

Health consequences

Early pregnancies among adolescents have major health consequences for adolescent mothers and their babies. Pregnancy and childbirth complications are the leading cause of death among girls aged 15–19 years globally, with low- and middle-income countries accounting for 99% of global maternal deaths of women aged 15–49 years.Adolescent mothers aged 10–19 years face higher risks of eclampsia, puerperal endometritis and systemic infections than women aged 20–24 years. Additionally , some 3.9 million unsafe abortions among girls aged 15–19 years occur each year, contributing to maternal mortality, morbidity and lasting health problems.

Social and economic consequences

Social consequences for unmarried pregnant adolescents may include stigma, rejection or violence by partners, parents and peers. Girls who become pregnant before the age of 18 years are more likely to experience violence within a marriage or partnership. Adolescent pregnancy and childbearing often leads girls to drop out of school, although efforts are underway is some place to enable them to return to school after child birth, this may well jeopardize girls’ future education and employment opportunities.

According to youth.gov (2014) there are many risk factors or precursors related to teen pregnancy including:

the teen pregnancy rates for the last 10 years for our state and community Has increased because of-

1-Living in poverty

2-Limited maternal education

3-Lack of sexual educations

Living in poverty. Those living in poverty or a lower socio-economic culture have access to fewer resources such as contraceptives, appropriate education regarding pregnancy, and once pregnant, they often lack access to proper pre-natal care.

Limited maternal education. As previously mentioned, the mother's educaiton level play an important role in teen pregnancy. The teenager who has a solid education and has had the opportunity to at least complete high school is more likely to have had appropriate health and sexual education. Statistics show that a good sexual education class can reduce teen pregnancy by 50% (Siecus, 2008). That study compared abstinence only education with a sexual education course covering STDs and contraceptives. Single parent homes and lack of parental supervision (youth.gov, 2014). When a parentis actively involved in the teen's life, and there is more consistent parental supervision,the risks of teen pregnancy drops. Typically in a single parent home, the parent must work to provide for the children, this leaves the home unsupervised for several hours aday where the sexual activity can take place. Because the single parent is often home less, this leave less time for parent-child communication to take place.Sexual pressure from peers. Peer influence is a very big deal during teen years. If the teen thinks that her friends and other social peers are sexually active, they are more likely to engage in sexual activity (Southeastern Idaho Public Health, 2016). Also, if they think their peers are not using condoms, or there is a negative attitude related to condoms, the teen is less likely to use them (youth.gov, 2014). This obviously increases the risk of teen pregnancy.A mother who was a teen mother. This is likely related to the culture that is accepting of teen pregnancy. If the mother was a teen parent, this may be seen as acceptable for the teen. My immediate county does not offer any specific teen resouces for pregnancy, but my county has quite a few.

*Community and State resources -

• Community Mobilization and Sustainability
  : Engage all sectors of the population in a communitywide effort to address teen pregnancy prevention. Community mobilization supports the sustainability of teen pregnancy prevention efforts by empowering community members and groups to take action to facilitate change. This component includes mobilizing necessary resources, disseminating information, generating support, and fostering cooperation across public and private sectors in the community.
• Evidence-Based Programs: Provide teens with evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs meeting the HHS evidence review standards. This includes youth-development and curriculum-based programs that reduce teen pregnancy and associated risk factors. Evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention (TPP) programs are programs that have been shown, in at least one program evaluation, to have a positive effect on preventing teen pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, or sexual risk behaviors. Each evidence-based TPP program was identified by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) TPP Evidence ReviewExternal, which used a systematic process for reviewing evaluation studies against a rigorous standard.
• Increasing Youth Access to Contraceptive and Reproductive Health Care Services: Ensure clinical partners provide teen friendly, culturally competent reproductive health care services that are easily accessible to all young people in the community. The partners establish linkages between teen pregnancy prevention program partners and clinics that serve at risk youth from the target community.
• Stakeholder Education: Educate civic leaders, parents, and other community members about evidence-based strategies to reduce teen pregnancy and improve adolescent reproductive health. This includes needs and available resources in the target community.
• Working with Diverse Communities
  Raise awareness of community partners about the link between teen pregnancy and social determinants of health. Ensure culturally and linguistically appropriate programs and reproductive health care services are available to young people.