When I was 17 years old I found myself wanting a child. I used to envy couples I saw on the street with children. Imagine me, a fifth form student struck with baby fever? What did I know about raising a child, except bathing and burping? But that didn't matter, mi did want mi youth.

At 19, I'm now a university student and still childless. Not because I can't have one, but because wise men learn from other people's mistakes. While in fifth form, a friend of mine found out that his girlfriend was two months pregnant, a month before we were to sit our CSEC exams. The girl was barely 16 and was one grade level below us. After completing our exams, my friend had no hopes for higher education, no matter what results he got. Neither his nor his girlfriend's family were well off, so he was forced to find a job to take care of his baby mother and their unborn child.
According to the United Nations Population Fund, approximately 15 million young women between 15 and 19 give birth every year - more than 10 per cent of all babies born. For girls aged 10 to 14, maternal mortality rates may be five times higher than for women in their early 20s, and their children are also more likely to fall sick or die in infancy. In a 2004 article published in the British monthly magazine, Contemporary Review, Jamaican reporter Trudy Simpson stated that teenaged girls account for nearly one quarter of all births in Jamaica. This is a serious problem as many teens think that it takes nothing to raise to a child, and it is unbelievable how ignorant some of us are, believing that drinking soda after sex or having intercourse in water will prevent pregnancy.

Many of us suffer from low self-esteem and peer pressure; some don't have strong parental figures. Others see being pregnant as something good. But it's not just bathing, feeding, changing and burping; a child comes with financial, emotional, physical and social responsibilities that a teen can't cope with. Plus, the stigma attached to teen mothers.
They are looked down on as failures. Pregnancy changes every woman's life. For a teen it would more likely change for the worse.

However, it takes two to tango, and the boys who have sex without condoms are just as irresponsible. Then there are the predators who prey on teenage girls. They know that many are not financially stable and manipulate this to their advantage. Ladies, please, believe in your worth and know that you shouldn't be bought.

The Women's Centre now caters to more than 32,000 teenage girls. We all need to do our part to see that the figure declines. As a teen, sex is not a necessity but if you do plan to be sexually active, including contraceptives is a must because, trust me, yuh nuh ready fi baby yet.

Trousers in Denim

Cream of the 'Crop'

Cheeky's World