Sex is Complicated: Teenage Pregnancy

KNOW THE FACTS

You'd think nowadays that the very notion of "free love," would be long lost to pains of Syphilis, AIDS, Herpes and Genital Warts. However between Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, sexting and other social networking sites; geared to match-up people for sexual activities, you'd think we've lost our minds! I'm a surgical technologist, and quite frankly I don't think people realize how painful a canker sore that is situated on your private parts really is and feels. And..., quite frankly, that's not even half of it.The medical complications that coincides with sex, especially unprotected sex, is only a tiny part of the big picture. More importantly, whether you're young or old, people here in America live with the "that won't happen to me" syndrome.

Still though, if we are going to have a conversation about the complications to having sex, we simply can't ignore some of the extra emotional constraints that sex puts on a relationship, regardless of your age. Which (I'll add) often leads to tear soaked pillow cases, temper tantrums, rage, emptiness, loneliness, or better yet, all the above. Needless to say if you're having sex, the sooner you realize by having sex comes BIG responsibilities, the better off we ALL will be. Sometimes, those ultimate responsibilities can come in the form of a HIV diagnosis, or a baby. Let's face it, sex is complicated. Just ask Magic Johnson.

One such complication to having sex (is of course); Teenage Pregnancy.

Let's face it..., the consequences of teenage guys and girls having sex, and then getting pregnant while in high school; often have an unfortunate profound impact on their young lives. The results of this mishap are generally unwanted, and can lead to teenage depression, and in rare cases suicide. The usual norm of circumstances, which often follow sexually active teens; just so happen to be the leading factors, behind the driving force of America's forever increasing, high school drop-out rate. Not only that, but, these fresh new drop-outs are less likely to go on to higher learning, and often find themselves living in poverty. Therefore, with no education to speak of; what's the next step, more babies more sex? If you answered YES, you happen to be correct. The younger the parent, the more likely they are to have another child within that following year after the birth of the first baby. All I'm saying is if you are thinking about having sex, it is important to know that the consequences can last a lifetime.

Here's some facts about teen pregnancy taken from the;

TEEN site Get Informed ι Stay Teen.

• Three out of ten teenage girls in the United States get pregnant at least one before age 20 -- that amounts to 745,000 teen pregnancies each year.

• The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world -- twice as high as in England or Canada and eight times as high as in the Netherlands or Japan.

• Children of teen mothers do worse in school than those born to older parents -- they are 50 percent more likely to repeat a grade.

• Pregnant teens are far less likely to receive timely and consistent prenatal care than those who get pregnant at a later age. The children of teen mothers are more likely to be born prematurely and at low birth weight and are two times more likely to suffer abuse and neglect compared to children of older mothers.
• Teen mothers are also more likely to smoke during pregnancy!

• Two-thirds of families begun by a young unmarried mother are poor. More than half of all mothers on welfare had their first child as a teenager -- which can further impede their ability to finish school or keep a job, and to escape poverty.

• The daughters of young teen mothers are three times more likely to become teen mothers themselves.

• The sons of teen mothers are twice as likely to end up in prison.
• Shocking right? Well according to OMGFactsSex The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.