I grew up in a small mill town where lots of families were working hard for their money and everyone knew just about everyone.

As a kid, I can really only remember one teen pregnancy in my town. The first time I saw a pregnant teenager, I was in middle school, and I had gone over to the high school to do some dance recital. She acted all bubbly and excited about the proposition of being pregnant as did everyone around her, to her face. But as soon as she turned her back, people would snicker,
“she acts so proud that she’s pregnant!”
“do you know who the father is?”
“no, she’s such a slut!”
...not fun to be the pregnant teenager in a small high school of five hundred or so, and she knew it, despite the pleasant persona she put on about it.

When I got to high school, I was really, really lucky and I got to go to small private school down the road. We were small, tight-knit and about as liberal as you’ll find. I don’t recall ever hearing about any teen pregnancies in my high school, but this isn’t to make any statement that rich private-school kids can’t get pregnant; they can and do all the time. In my town, a lot of these kids had better tools for avoiding teen pregnancy or dealing with unintended teen pregnancies. Why? Well, we did have a really good sex ed program and all freshmen HAD to take it; sex ed was taken as one big class, with the guys and girls together. Also, lots of us had a close relationship with our dorm counselors; I remember one of them saying that they weren’t shy about bringing their girls over to Planned Parenthood for any resources they might need. For those of us who were day students, many of us had pretty close relationships with our parents- they were really invested in our education, invested in us, and usually spent a good amount of time with us as a result.

So what’s the moral of the story? In a day and age where we’ve got TV shows about pregnant sixteen-year-olds, it’s hard to know what to think of teen pregnancy. Either “get pregnant, get famous!” or “get pregnant and this is how miserable your life will be!” Neither are great opinions to have of pregnancy. The best source for guidance on pregnancy is likely to come from people we know and trust. So again, I return to a point I’ve turned to in several other blogs: it’s important to have an older guardian you can turn to for advice on matters of pregnancy, sexual health, or you name it. If it can’t be a parent, maybe it can be a teacher, or even a school counselor (that’s what they’re there for after all- counseling, and they will listen). So if you have questions, don’t stay in the dark about them- ask!!