How Easy is Getting Pregnant Education on Teenage Pregnancy
I think most people would be astounded by the number of questions I answer every week regarding pregnancy on the Forums at Sexetc.org or on the Sex, Etc. Tumblr page. If I had to guess, I'd bet that 90 percent of the questions have to do with pregnancy and whether or not the person asking the question or his partner is pregnant based on the detailed story they lay out for me.
Of these many questions asked about whether or not someone is pregnant, the vast majority of the situations described involve no risk for pregnancy. And, about half of the time when I tell the teen asking that there was low or no risk for pregnancy, they don't believe me at first.
Easy to Dismiss
It would be easy to dismiss a teenager's anxiety and attribute it to hormones or "just being dramatic." Some people would probably want to moralize and say, "Well, if teens can't use birth control or condoms or "control themselves," they deserve to get pregnant or contribute to a pregnancy." But I've learned that teens' anxiety about pregnancy isn't about not using condoms, not using birth control or perhaps even not practicing abstinence; it's that these young people literally do not understand how pregnancy happens, which means they can't understand how to prevent it.
And that is not their fault.
How Pregnancy Happens
The teens who ask about whether they or their partners are pregnant usually describe a situation like kissing a partner who ejaculates in his jeans and wondering if this could cause a pregnancy. Or she's on hormonal birth control and they used a condom when they engaged in oral sex, but maybe some semen got on his or her hand and they want to know if she could be pregnant. You would be surprised how many people think that sperm can live on shower walls, in sinks, on toilet seats or toilet paper or that sperm can get through layers of clothing.
Again, the fact that teens are asking these questions and want to know if they could be pregnant or could cause a pregnancy in these situations is not their fault. It's ours, because obviously we need to do a better job of educating young people on some of the basics related to pregnancy and reproduction.
Pregnancy Education Is Pregnancy Prevention
A lot of times people hear pregnancy prevention, and they think of the methods by which to prevent pregnancy from happening: using a condom, practicing abstinence or using hormonal birth control. But I would argue that pregnancy prevention starts with something much more basic: teaching young people how a pregnancy happens. When we talk about pregnancy and reproduction with our children or our students, we should be thinking, are we doing it early and often? Are we doing it in a way that is age-appropriate and makes sense to them developmentally? And are we presenting ourselves as trusted resources so that they feel comfortable asking questions about reproduction and how it happens?
Pregnancy prevention and education too often get caught up in a debate about whether or not teens should be having sex, when really it starts with the fundamental belief that young people have a right to understand their bodies and how they work. It's our job to arm them with the knowledge necessary for them to make healthy and informed decisions.
We owe it to them.
—Kaitlyn Wojtowicz, M.A., Coordinator of Education and Communications
Source: https://answer.rutgers.edu/blog/2014/05/01/pregnancy-prevention-starts-with-pregnancy-education/
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