Teenage Pregnancy

Introduction

In Asia, Philippines is one of the most wealthy country in terms of natural resources. And as the years gone by, the country is also being rich in people, not in capital human resources but on human production. The growth in population in the country is continuous that it will reach to the point where there is a great problem regarding the scarcity of food and lack of shelter. The early economist and demographer, Thomas Robert Malthus, already oriented the people regarding the consequences of overpopulation. According to Malthus’s Theory of Population, there are potential dangers in the increase of population and as he explained, the people can multiply faster than the rate of food supply. This very same idea is now tackled by the countries with a number of populations and rapid increase in production rate. Any further increase would lead the population to face the various phenomena like famine or disease.

If we will watch closely the trend in the increase of population, there is an obvious increase in population among the third world countries or the developing countries as against to the developed countries. Then we can say that the increase of population may be both the cause and effect of poverty. The environment of the people is also a great factor to increase the population and apparently it is demonstrated by the young parents. The young parenting are composed of young unmarried couple and yet starting to build a family of their own. In this case, the issue of overpopulation is set aside; instead we will focus on the increasing problem of teenage pregnancy.

Teenage pregnancy is characterized by young girls with ages 13-19 years old. The growth on the numbers of teenage pregnancy became an alarming situation in both community and national levels. Teenage pregnancy has many causes in which the government can’t recognize the real reason behind this sudden growth. The factors that the experts identified are the environment in which the teenagers belong, the parents’ participation in guidance and growth, and the socialization as well as the influence of the media. The results of teenage pregnancy are also identified to bring consequences on the life of both mother and child. In fact, there are clinical studies that show that health risks on young women who are not physically and mentally capable in bearing a child.

Again, for Malthus in the idea of population, the only way to fight the continuous increase in population, abstinence and delayed marriage are the applicable solution. This will not make the society suffer in the food and shelter but will give the people the opportunity to perform their role in their society. This enlightens the policymakers and health workers to create an intervention to save the population growth. Therefore, here are many programs and appropriate education to prevent the continuous growth of pregnancy rate among the young adults or adolescents. But these solutions are not fully acceptable by the majority because of the ethical and morality considerations. In the end, the teenage pregnancy, early parenting, and other unplanned family settlement will contribute to the population problem of every country and for the Philippines, it will definitely deteriorate the capacity of people to perform in any sectors.

Early pregnancy represents the women in the middle of the challenges. Although most of the women in today are successful in their lives, the young mothers are often depicted as an individual who receives insufficient education, no vocational training, no stable livelihood, and other negative issues that might degrade their personality in the society. The teenagers are also stigmatized of having the powerlessness and incompetence because they do not have own motivation to continue their education or do things that might help them live. Based on the rule of the society, a person who is not a graduate of any course must struggle to live decently. Due to these common societal and parental pressures that the young mothers receive, the creation of a training which is entirely focus to help them is an important program to help the women build their own strength.

However, teenage pregnant women have few chances to complete education still have the opportunities through the various vocational training with an aim to help them live in a decent way. The use of the vocational education is another strategy being applied to facilitate the movement of the young mother towards the economic success. Through the various vocational strategies, there is a possibility to strengthen the teenagers in parenting most especially the young girls who suddenly turned into mothers. The vocational program can help the young mothers to find their inner talents or skills and boost it to use in their adventure in their new life.