Teen Pregnancy
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Experts estimate that one in three girls in the United States will deal with a teen pregnancy. Being a pregnant teen is difficult emotionally, socially and even physically. If you are a teen dealing with an unplanned pregnancy, you have some tough decisions you need to make and some hard consequences with which you will have to deal. Before you can do any of this it is important that you carefully explore your situation and your pregnancy options. Regardless of which choice you ultimately make, it is a choice that will affect the rest of your life.
Keeping your Baby
It is not uncommon for a girl dealing with teen pregnancy to want to keep her baby. If you are dealing with an unplanned pregnancy and you want to keep your baby, there are many things you need to consider. You need to evaluate the changes that you will have to make in your life to accommodate motherhood. You need to consider your education, how you will continue with that and how far you planned on taking your education. You need to figure out how you will financially support your baby and who will care for your baby while you work and go to school.
It is also important to seek the advice of a parent or trusted adult who can point you in the direction of services and programs that may be able to help you. Schools, places of worship and social service groups all provide services to help girls dealing with teen pregnancy. In addition to this, there are a number of programs and services offered by the government.
Adoption
Some girls dealing with teen pregnancy choose to place their baby up for adoption. There are a number of reasons for which a pregnant teen may choose adoption. She may want to continue her education. She may not be financially stable or she may be lacking support. In addition to these reasons, some teens who are pregnant simply feel that adoption is a better option for their baby in the long term.
When it comes to adoption, you have many options to consider. You can choose between an open and closed adoption. What this means is choosing between having contact with your baby's adoptive parents or not having contact. Contact means that you can have regular updates on your baby as he or she grows. In addition to this, you can choose to work with an adoption agency that finds and screens couples for you or you can seek couples to adopt your baby independently.
Abortion
If you are still in the early stages of your pregnancy, you may be considering having an abortion. It is important for you to know that a pregnant teen typically needs parental consent to have an abortion. In most states this is the law. If you feel that abortion is the right choice for you and you have parental consent, you will need to contact your local Planned Parenthood or your physician for a referral.
There are different methods of abortion and the one you have depends on how far along you are in your pregnancy. If it is fairly early on, you may be able to have a medical abortion. This involves you taking a series of prescribed medications that help your body abort your pregnancy. If you are a bit further along, your doctor will probably do a surgical abortion. This involves vacuum aspiration of the fetus and often dilation and removal of tissue.
