’A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary’.

- Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Teen pregnancy is back in the news after OK! Magazine announced the pregnancy of Jamie Lynn Spears, the 16-year-old sister of Britney Spears, and went on to sell a record two million copies.

Pregnancy that occurs between puberty and age 19 is dubbed teen pregnancy. Teenage pregnancy generally refers to pregnancy in women who may not legally be adults, and this varies according to the law of the land.

Unplanned Pregnancy in Underage Moms

Teenage mothers are physically, mentally, and emotionally not ready for parenthood. Statistics prove that young women aged 15 to 19 in under-developed and developing countries, die of complications from pregnancy and childbirth. Major international surveys show that babies born to very young mothers—those aged 14 and under- are 50 percent more likely to die, than children born to women in their twenties. Obstructed labor, the scourge of teenage mothers, results in increased risk of infant death and maternal death or disability. Young teens who indulge in careless, unprotected sex, are also prone to develop HIV/AIDS. Teenage pregnancy is an important issue, rated as high profile and high priority, world over.

Incidence in Developed Countries

In the US, teenage pregnancy is when an “under aged” girl becomes pregnant. In the UK it is pregnancy in a woman who is not yet 18 years old. An international ranking of countries where teenage pregnancy was devastating for mother and child has countries in the sub-Saharan Africa at the worst end and Sweden at the least end.

According to the United Nations’ last comprehensive tally of G8 countries the highest teenage pregnancy rates were as follows:

US - 41.8 per 1,000 females
Russia - 28 per 1,000 females
U.K. - 26.8 per 1,000 females
Canada - 14.5 per 1,000 females
Germany - 11 per 1,000 females
France - 7.8 per 1,000 females
Italy - 6.7 per 1,000 females
Japan - 5.6 per 1,000 females

Media Trends

Teenagers in the West have more ‘cultural permission’ to begin their sex life earlier than their counterparts in Asia.

Popular culture and teen celebrities make it look as if teen pregnancy has gained acceptance in the West. Movies like ‘Knocked Up’ and ‘Waitress’, showcase teen pregnancies.

Celebrity moms including American Idol star Fantasia Barrino who became a mom at 17 and the now-pregnant Jamie Lynn Spears are setting new trends that are beginning to redefine motherhood.

‘Gray’s Anatomy’ (America ’s primetime TV medical drama) and ‘Gossip Girl’ (a popular American teen serial) have also projected teen pregnancy story lines.

Changing Lifestyles

According to behavioral scientists, rising teen pregnancy rates may also have to do with home life, where it is possible that casual sex is observed among single parents. With increasing number of families separating, single parents with their ‘partners’ and live-in relationships becoming commonplace, adolescents, who are at a vulnerable stage of life receive confusing signals about lifestyle and social behavior.

The Asian Scenario

In villages and among the labor class in urban areas in Asian countries like India, for instance, ignorant parents marry off their teenage daughters to men who are equally ignorant of family planning principles that result in teenage pregnancies.