Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Think before you speak

Had an interesting interesting conversation/topic come up recently. One that most would like to perhaps avoid or a best critize severely without really thinking about the situation before responding. Teen pregnancy!

What would you do if you found out that a teen age family member was 8 1/2 months pregnant and until that very moment you had absolutely no idea? I'm not talking about a family member that you don't see on a regular basis. No, I'm talking about a family member that lives under your own roof or a family member that you see very regularly.

There are no outward appearances of any physical change, no mood changes, no eating changes, no sleeping changes, or no changes with academic achievements. And suddenly one family member is the "lucky" family member to learn of this impending birth with very little time to react let alone perhaps make a rational decision on what to do as they are still in shock from the sudden announcement.

If you were presented with such a situation.....for the sake of conversation just hypothetically imagine.......how would you respond? What would be the option(s) (i.e., get the teen to the doctors, tell other family members, keep the child, adopt the child out, etc.)? Keeping in mind that eventhough you are perhaps realing from the sudden shock of the news, there's a teen that has been feeling terrified the entire pregnancy by keeping her silence
.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is too late for an abortion. Support the teen, let her have her baby negotiate with her parents to let her keep it and help with raising the child until she can afford to do so. It is never good to give up your own child for adoption there is always a lingering regret. If the father is over 18 give him part of the responsibility and let his parents as well know they have a grandchild and should help morally and financially- Hope that helps!
Highlander

ibeebarbie said...

Salam Higlander,

Thank you for stopping by and adding your thoughts and suggestions. Greatly appreciated.

Anonymous said...

My comment might come a little bit late but like you said the teen is already 8 1/2 months pregnant, then the birth is imminent no doubt about that, and nothing can be done now to terminate it. The father of the unborn child has to be told in a confidential way first, and if he is ready to take responsibility , fine but if not then it is up to the parents to decide how to take care of the girl and her baby. I wonder if you have seen the episode of desperate housewives , where one of the women had a pregnant daughter , so to save the day she acted out the whole pregnancy herself until her daughter gave birth and then she took over the baby as her own. It was a way of keeping the baby in the family, so the parents can actually keep their daughter's baby and act as if they have adopted it.
The whole thing is a real dilemma and every family has its own way of dealing with problems.
I personally think that the less people involved, the better !

on the edge said...

These things do happen in real life so .... I hope I would do and say all the "right" things ... I.E. keep the baby if that's what she wants to do, help the mother out in making a good decision for her and her baby .Tough call . What did you do ?