III. Intervention Steps For Pregnant Adolescents
B. Contraceptives as Only One Alternative
C. The Adolescent Male's Responsibility
The alarming increase in adolescent pregnancies in America has parents, teachers, social scientists and the medical profession worried. Sex education in the home and in school does not seem to be working. Further, the issues involved in teen sex are becoming more complicated due to the debate over abortion, the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases such as AIDS and the economic, medical and social toll paid by the mother and society with each baby born to an adolescent.
The purpose of this paper will be to discuss nursing and its intervention capabilities in teen pregnancy. As professionals who are closely involved in the care of pregnant teens, nurses have the opportunity to impart information to their patients in what for most is a very difficult time. Therefore, the research will focus on such elements as what options or choices are available to the pregnant teenager; discussion of the adolescent's developmental stage; the economic considerations; education in childbirth; family planning information as a future parent; the psychological and psychosocial support available; the risks involved; sex education and any legal implications.
A decade ago the idea that twelve-year-olds would be receiving birth control pills and that contraceptives would be given out at schools would have been unthinkable. Today, however, with the high rate of teenage pregnancy and the fear of AIDS and other diseases, a new debate is stirring across
America. "What was once a matter of morality has become a matter of public health" (Kantrowitz, 1987, p. 54) .
Since 1977, more than one million teenage girls have become pregnant each year. This rate is the highest in the Western world, and many consider it an epidemic. Further, in 1984, fifty-six percent of teen births were out of wedlock compar...