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Teenage pregnancy has been happening since the beginning of time, and your teenager will need your support and guidance for this challenging experience. As a parent, you must give your maximum effort to help your teen face the challenges head on.
Give Your Support
Most families consider teenage pregnancy a crisis, and all members must give their support despite any feelings of disappointment, anger, guilt, or denial. Given this situation, your teenager may be feeling fear, depression, shock, and anxiety. Ask your teen about their feelings and give your guidance and assistance.
Talk About the Options
Your teenager will have numerous options to choose from:
- Keep the Baby. Some pregnant teens choose to keep their babies and attempt to stay with their partner. Other teenagers depend on their parent’s support to take care of the baby. As a parent, you should discuss the responsibilities and all the hardships that your teenager will endure with pregnancy, childbirth and raising a child.
- Let Someone Else Adopt the Baby. Giving the baby up for adoption is one option for a pregnant teenager. If the teenager knows that she and her family are not capable of raising the baby, it would be best to look for someone who can give the child a better life. This option will have a significant impact on the teenager, and your guidance will be much needed.
- Stop Pregnancy. Some pregnant teenagers choose an elective abortion. If this is their choice, discuss the different risks and their feelings about it. Keep in mind that some states need parental consent or notification if the teenager chooses an elective abortion.
It would be best to encourage your teen to also discuss the options with their partner. A health care provider, a pregnancy counselor, or a psychologist can give professional advice on this issue.
Encourage Appropriate Parental Care
Pregnant teenagers are exposed to health risks such as anemia, high blood pressure, premature birth, postpartum depression, and having low birth weight babies. You should advise your teen to do the following:
- Get Prenatal Care. Regular prenatal visits are essential to a healthy pregnancy, as they monitor both the teen’s and baby’s health. Prenatal care can determine if there is a health issue that needs to be handled or if everything is going well.
- Get a Sexually Transmitted Infection Test. Getting an STI test is imperative for a pregnant teenager. Your teen will need proper treatment if found positive for an STI.
- Observe a Healthy Diet. A healthy diet is every pregnant teen’s task to stay healthy. They need more calcium, folic acid, iron, and other essential nutrients when pregnant.
- Exercise Regularly. Always remind your teen to have regular physical activity to be more healthy. Please encourage them to consult their healthcare provider for exercise programs that would be safe during the pregnancy.
- Gain Weight Properly. Gaining weight during pregnancy should be closely monitored for your teen’s and baby’s health. It will be one of the main factors when your teen is about to give birth. Loosing weight after pregnancy can be easy and healthy.
- Stay Away From Dangerous Substances. Always remind your pregnant teen to stay away from dangerous substances like alcohol, cigarettes, and prohibited drugs.
- Attend Childbirth Classes. You can accompany your pregnant teen to a childbirth class to learn more about the stages of pregnancy.
- Share What You Know. As a parent, you should pass on to your teen the experiences you had taking care of them. You can teach them what to choose for the appropriate feeding methods, such as providing organic foods like Holle infant formula.
Make Plans for the Future
Teenage pregnancy is a difficult time for both the parents and the teen. You cannot do anything to escape the situation, so it’s best to face it head on instead. Most teens are not prepared emotionally and financially for a pregnancy, which makes this the moment when they need their parents’ care more than anything else. Be there for your teen.
