Teenage Pregnancy: Health Concerns and The Ways to Prevent

Introduction

Teenager’s pregnancy refers to a female who is between the ages of thirteen to nineteen and becoming pregnant. In this assignment of identifying possible health concern, it focuses on the scenario where a couple of teenagers found out that the female teen is 8 weeks pregnant in a shelter home. This assignment mainly focus on teenage pregnancy, the actual and potential health concern that it carries and the way to prevent teenage pregnancy.

Health Concerns

The scenario involves a couple of teenagers where the female is fifteen years old and just found out that she was eight weeks pregnant. They seek the shelter for a place to sleep when they found out the news. The male talks the whole time when the female looks down on the floor not looking at anyone. This is an example of teenage pregnancy, when looking into the scenario, two problems can be identified right away. First of all, since this couple went to seek for a shelter to sleep in, it is reasonable to say that either they are homeless or something happened in their home and they have no place to stay. Thus meaning that the mother, in this case is this fifteen years old female, will not be able to get the care that she needs before the baby is born, and that can result in medical risk such as poor maternal weight gain, one part is because she is a teenager or an adolescent. Another is that she does not have anyone to support her and because of poor nutritional status, leading to anemia. According to the OB/GYN team from the site revere health, the female of this age is more likely to have anemia due to lack of nutritious food intake and because of an adolescent body needs more iron due to expansion of red cell mass during this time of age (Revere Health 2016). Although the statistics showed that the mortality rate is low, it is still twice as much when compared to an adult pregnancy. This is significant because if the female does not receive maternal care, either the baby will not make it or both of them will. More so, this is not what either of them expected, the scenario stated that they just found out that she was eight weeks pregnant so clearly they did not prepare for it.

The second potential risk is regarding HIV, adolescent when having intercourse are more likely to get HIV. Sexual intercourse among teenagers and adolescent increased the risk of having HIV related diseases. According to a study, HIV related diseases and sexually transmitted infection is higher in adolescent, age group from fifteen to twenty four, than adult group, from twenty five to forty nine. This is important for the mother as well as they baby. HIV is hard to treat , especially when the patient is not financially supported. HIV reduced the chance for the body to fight against diseases. Thus meaning that when disease occurs, the mother will not likely to make it without seeking medical care and since the mother and the fetus is connected, the fetus will be involved as well. Furthermore, HIV can progressed worse and can lead to AIDS. This makes the body weaker and the immune system does not work as well as a healthy person, and more likely to get infection, pneumonia and cancer that a normal person can fight off.

Health Resources

One of the current health resources found online that address current health issue is “EmedicineHealth”. This resource explains clearly what is anemia so that readers can grasp the information easier. Anemia is when the number of red blood cells of the body is low and cause dizziness and fatigue. It slaso talks about the causes and symptoms of the disease. This applies to the scenario because it states that some of the causes that lead to anemia is pregnancy, poor nutritional intake, and AIDS. When pregnant, the mother’s body gain water weight and body fluid so the blood diluted, which mean the concentration of red blood cell is low. When eating poorly and does not have enough nutritious value, red blood cells cannot be made, iron is needed for the production of red blood cells and vitamin B12 is vital for making hemoglobin. Without the ingredients, the body is hard to maintain one's life, not only this female is pregnant as well, she must have more red blood cells than those who are not pregnant. In this scenario, the best case for this fifteen years old female is to either find a healthy food source like a charity place or to meet with a social worker if she wants to keep the baby, or abortion. Usually, it takes twenty four weeks before it is too late for abortion, in this case she is only about eight weeks which mean she could do it if she wanted to. According to a study by Lohr, just under half of all pregnancies around the world are unintended and then half of the cases ended in abortion. All of the reasons that make a woman go through with abortion includes finacial barriers, lack of partner support, teenagers, economically disadvantage, and those who did not expect a baby (Lorh 2014). This case of the female fits all of the categories listed above and she should make a decision.

Another website is “PregnancyHealthandBaby”. This resource mainly focus on pregnancy. It talks about the statistics of teenage pregnancy and mostly is about the one that involves does not know how to prevent themselves from being pregnant. There are a lot of pictures and statistics to make the reader more informed on the situation. It shows that what can healthcare providers do to help or more importantly, what can the ones that involves can do to help themselves. The website believes that to prevent is more important than fixing what has already happened. LARC (Long-Acting Reversible Contraception) seems to be most effective when it comes to teenage pregnancy prevention. However, it all comes down to the teens who are the one that actually performing sexual intercourse. They can either choose not to have sex, or if they do, talk with a health care provider about how to get the correct birth control or how to use condom correctly because if they lack knowledge on the matter, it will become worsen.

Conclusion

In the end, teenage pregnancy is highly prevented all around the world. It can affect the lives of that individual drastically and can also affect the society. In this scenario, there is no explanation why these teens went to the shelter instead of a home. This detail impact the situation greatly because nowadays being pregnant is expensive and needed care unconditionally, however these teens do not seem to be able to make it, therefore prevention of teenage pregnancy is important.