Young parents and their children often experience multiple challenges, but many can be reduced with good support.
Risks for young parents
- Significantly higher complication rates during pregnancy and delivery, and higher rates of postnatal depression.
- Not completing school, potentially resulting in long term unemployment, welfare dependency and poverty.
- Emotional stress due to poverty and social isolation, at times leading to vulnerability to becoming involved in unhealthy relationships.
- Low self-esteem and fear of social stigma.
Risks for their children
- Increased risk of miscarriage, premature birth, low birth weight, birth defects and other complications.
- Higher than average infant mortality rates.
- Less likely to be breastfed.
- Higher rates of injury and death between ages 1 & 3.
- Adolescent children of mothers who gave birth at 18 or less were found to be more likely to have disturbed psychological behaviour, poorer school performance and reading ability, more contact with the criminal justice system and with tobacco and alcohol.
What helps…
In reducing teenage pregnancy
- Quality sex and relationships education – accurate information, skills in decision-making, assertiveness, negotiation, life skills.
- Remaining connected with education, tutoring and support, career counselling, employment & community involvement.
- Access to confidential contraception services, providing counselling, supply of contraceptives and follow up care.
- Targeted programs for hard to reach young people.
In supporting healthy pregnancies
- Multidisciplinary antenatal clinics – physical & psychological support.
- Support from family, friends and peers.
- Informed advice and encouragement.
In supporting young parents and their children
- Sustained and non-judgemental postnatal support – centre based and home visits.
- One-stop-shop access to advice and information about housing, health, income support, education and training and employment.
- Returning to school or re-entering workforce – less likelihood of child protection notifications.
and what doesn’t…
In reducing teenage pregnancy
- A large scale evaluation of sexual abstinence-only education programs in American schools found that young people in the program group were no more likely than control group youth to have abstained from sex.
- Teenagers who had been sexually active, from both the program group and the control group, reported having had similar numbers of sexual partners and had initiated sex at the same mean age.
In supporting healthy pregnancies
- Discriminatory behaviours from professionals working with young people in health and education.
- Bullying and harassment at school.
In supporting young parents and their children
- Judgemental attitudes and behaviours in the family and the community that discourage young women from seeking help.
- Inflexible approaches to supporting young parents in schools, training establishment and workplaces.
- A lack of acknowledgement that most young parents love and care for their children and are doing their best in often difficult circumstances.