Teen Pregnancy
I’ve always thought that teenage pregnancy in poverty is like starting the race of life with hands and legs tied together whilst blindfolded. It’s not that children born to young mothers in poverty can’t lift themselves out of their environment, it is that they have to shine supernova like to get the same opportunities others take for granted. The less babies born to young mothers in poverty, the more chance we have to give those young woman and their future offspring better opportunities. Sex education has to be part of this solution, not only helping with the mechanics of condom rolling onto fruit, but also suggestions on how to say no and understanding the full responsibilities of sex. Giving young people through the education system the power of sexual health information gives them the confidence and self esteem that makes them respect themselves and thus their sexual partners and manages to reinforce in real terms, the safer sex message.
This is all the more important to us in NZ because we have one of the highest teen pregnancy and abortion rates in the OECD, and with a safe sex education program that is still voluntary (ie - conservative Board of Trustees can dump the safe sex education program if they want to) many young people are still not recieving the education they need because of a conservative hang up that if you mention condoms to kids in schools, they will be rooting before teachers turn their backs.
Teen pregnancy linked to wealth
Teenage girls from New Zealand's most deprived areas are almost 10 times more likely to become pregnant than are those from the wealthiest areas, a Child Health Summit has heard.
Figures compiled by University of Auckland researcher Dr Liz Craig also show that for every teenager who gives birth in New Zealand, another has an abortion.
Dr Craig compiled figures from district health board areas and found the rate of teenage pregnancy fluctuated between 1980 and 2003, from as low as 50 for every 1000 girls aged 15-19 to almost 70 for every 1000 in 2003.
posted by Bomber @ 3:06 pm
12 comments
12 Comments:
you forget the fact that DPB enables teenage women to have the state support them in this.
read the sir humphrys report on dalrymple/bradford debate on this subject.
interesting
'It's not my fault I had unprotected sex...I am poor'
teenage girls from new zealand's most deprived areas are almost 10 times more likely to become pregnant than are those from the wealthiest areas, a child health summit has heard,.
like dalrymple i too see a connection between crushing poverty, solo-parenting, especially where the father has no input. violence in our society at the lower socio-economic level and the state encouraging young mothers to see it [parenthood] as a way out of the life they are living and the state they are in. girls, like boys need their fathers. a good father shows his daughter that there are different meanings to love other than sex. he teaches his son to be a man, to face his responsibilities, to treat women appropriately.
we are a long way from this society. yeah, i have also read dalrymple.
He's actually speaking in Auckland next week, should be quite interesting.
http://premier.ticketek.co.nz/shows/show.aspx?sh=DRTHEO06&searchId=e26084bb-d563-4f23-93a5-9d3cd5ffc5b5
Teenage parents can't get the DPB until they're 18 years old, I believe. So how is the State supporting them?
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong...
NS
...
The AIDS foundation always supported the HERO parade as a means to boost self esteem (hence calling it a Pride parade). They quickly caught on that if you felt self esteem, you would feel self worth and you would protect yourself sexually, and thus your sexual partner. I wonder how much low self esteem when you live in poverty plays into a heavy mix of sexualised youth mass media images.
...
Yes I've read dalrymple, and I'm not impressed. Is his reading of the situation valid? Of course it is, but his conclusions don't add up to me. He has very well seen the problems poverty create and the decisions young woman make when options are so few to them, thus a rollarcoaster ride of abuse begins. But the answer to these problems IS NOT cutting benefits and shutting down the welfare state - it is by giving those impoverished families more options, better housing, better conditions, better neighborhoods, better security - the real social infrastructure necessary to give women in poverty more options is not by squeezing benefits shut – many places around the world do not have benefits and they still have human tides of poverty – to suggest woman get pregnant for a DPB lifestyle ignores that poverty NOT BENEFITS is the problem. Give these young woman an environment where poverty isn’t crippling them, and then we manage to help them have more options than the DPB.
All I see dalrymple doing is using the examples of poverty to defend the dismantling of the welfare system, I think all he proves is that poverty is the problem, not welfare dependency.
I am or was one of those pregnant teens you speak of and did infact live on the DPB for a year. Thankfully due to a kind woman reminding me, that I didn't have to live the way it was expected of me, I started a little course at home called Mahi Ora. I have worked and studied part-time since that course. The DPB is a crutch for a body without a backbone.
All I needed was a boost in self esteem and the knowledge that it's not all over when you are a solo, teenaged mum.
I really believe that help for this problem needs to start in the home. Too many parents out there don't have time for their children, thus giving the children the idea that they are unworthy of time, love and security.
Also that sex education needs to be graphic enough about risk of infection and death to put a little fear into teens.
Thirdly I feel that there needs to be more focus on self worth and appreciation. As a teen I felt alone and my parents (although I love them dearly) weren't forthcoming with praise. I know this sounds like I'm playing a poor me act but, if you talk to teenagers I'm sure you'll find similar feelings of loneliness and grief for their earlier "easier" childhoods. I found myself looking for love and appreciation from other boys and girls. Sex came naturally after that, due to pressures of peers and the deep need to please whomever was keeping me company at the time.
If I respected myself and felt welcome at home, I wouldn't have been out there giving my innocence away.
There needs to be more support for parents too.
PAFT (Parents as first Teachers) is a wonderful service for first time parents but, it finishes at three years old. Could there not be some sort of service from 11yrs up? It must be hard to find some goodness in that dark, angry, deceitful monster of a teen, that used to be one's bubbly, happy child. I think that maybe parents don't feel strong enough to keep trying with their teens. They need back up and when there isn't any, they just give up.
Last. I would like to thank you Bomber. I have been watching your work as of late and would like to share my appreciation for your fights on our team. Thankyou for nailing those bastards with child porn dvds and thank you for believing that we girls still have potential. I'm pretty sure that I'll be a success oneday in motherhood and in the corporate world. You'll just have to watch this space...
Bomber, Dalrymple is not saying that young get pg for the dpb lifestyle, he's saying that the dpb allows young women to have babies and raise them alone. Why they have babies in this manner is because they need someone to love that will love them back because they have had so little love in their lives. Sex ed will not solve this problem. Removing the enabling part - the DBP will. Reinforcing to young people that who you decide to have as the father of your children is incredibly important - don't just get a sperm doner. It's not just about sex.
I find it worrying that the teenage mother admires a 'man' who is so angry, verbally abusive and violent, doesn't bode well for her choice of men in her life.
Perhaps she thinks it is normal, in fact there are real thoughtful men out there who can express themselves without obscenities, anger or violence, who don't 'demand' total compliance and agreement and who can cope appropriately with disagreement.
PS: why in the 21st century is contraception so hard.
...
lucyna, great to see you here, I’ve noticed your posts on other blogs. It is good to point out that the dole doesn’t produce dpb wanting mothers, and that they get pregnant for love. My problem is your next conclusion – ‘if you remove the ability for them to be on the DPB, the problem solves itself’ – that is simply false – if these young women in poverty have children because they are looking for love, then regardless of the DPB they will go looking for that love – it doesn’t follow that stopping the dpb will stop the problem does it?
PS - oh and Anon above, less said the better
'...... less said the better......'
Sometimes that is a good strategy for controlling anger and violence.
Maybe you are making progress.
Post a Comment
<< Home