Just had to get this out…
So I’ve been watching 16 and Pregnant on MTV. It’s my standard dose of reality TV done in a more tasteful short doc format. Not like the complete trash “reality” shows / competitions that accompany it on MTV.
Watching no episode in particular, I got a generally negative tone from the show. It portrays teen pregnancies in a negative light. There has also been a ton of publicity on how some people believe the show promotes teen pregnancy. Now I’m not here to say that getting pregnant at 16 is a fantastic idea, I just think it’s a lot better than getting pregnant after 35.
I currently have a 3 year old daughter, and yes, I would be super pissed if she got knocked up in her teens. Also, I’m all about waiting for marriage. I’ve just seen a growing trend of post college graduates staying in a perpetual state of childhood and a growing trend of waiting until the “right time” to have kids. Sometimes the right time for the body is not necessarily the right time financially. So what’s more important?
Along with the boomeranger and late pregnancy trends, we’ve also seen rise in disorders like autism.
Here are some stats:
Studies show that the risk of miscarriage (loss of a pregnancy before 20 weeks gestation) is 12% to 15% for women in their 20s and rises to about 25% for women at age 40. The increased incidence of chromosomal abnormalities contributes to this increased risk of miscarriage in older women.
The traditional age at which a woman is considered to be at high risk for chromosomal abnormalities is 35. Approximately 1 in 1,400 babies born from women in their 20′s have Down syndrome; it increases to about 1 in 100 babies born with Down syndrome from women in their 40s.
