What is your opinion of teenage pregnancy?

It depends, some teen mums are good mums. It's just the idiots who have unprotected sex, and are clueless about how to raise children properly. That is when I disagree with teen pregnancy!

It's completely down to the young mother. I doubt that many teenage pregnancies are planned but there are young mothers who are very capable. However, If she still wants to go out and party and not properly care for the child then obviously she wasn't ready and, in some cases, isn't fit to care for the child. Some young mothers are very maternal and willing to give up their current lifestyle to care for the child, but I feel that a major factor is whether the mother has a support network around her. She's more likely to be a good mum if she has the support that, like all of us, she needs.

I think teen mums are really stigmatised by society.

Obviously there is no real excuse for getting pregnant in this day and age of contraception, but these things happen and from the teen mums I've met, they make the best of it.

A girl from my school who left after GCSE got pregnant when she was 18. She got abuse shouted at her on the street from total strangers.
She attends college and also works part time even though she only earns £14 more a week than she could make taking benefits, and she absolutely adores her wee girl.

I understand not all teen mums are like this, but it is never acceptable to shout abuse at someone in the street because they're a young mum.

It shouts 'irresponsible' to me. That child, statistics show, is far more likely to live a life of poverty compared to other children.

It does shout irresponsible especially when so much education is provided than ever. Is it because of the increase number of curious teenagers engaging in sexual activities unprotected despite all the education? Or is it because of something else or just pure irresponsible behaviour?


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My Mum had me when she was a month away from her nineteenth birthday. She was certainly not a slag or a chav. My father and her had been in a relationship for a few years, and both had steady careers. My Mum didn't even know she was pregnant with me until her third trimester. It came as a massive shock as she really wasn't that sort of girl. Nonetheless, despite having me she managed to have an excellent career in the city until she had my brother and sister in her mid thirties and, although we don't always see eye to eye, I get on very well with her.

People were prejudice and called her all sorts at my little village primary school (just because she was a young Mum and yet she had a better career than all of the other mother's there and because of her I got to experience so much culture as a child (she took me to Paris, trips to museums and theatres in London, taught me how to speak basic Spanish, taught me all about Picasso, Da Vinci, Matisse ...none of my other friends got to experience that!). It was ridiculous really. I hate the stereotype that young Mum's are jobless chavs who don't look after their kids. My Mum worked all the way through my childhood and at a hard and demanding job at that. She has never once claimed benefits and I never went without anything. My parents split up when I was 3 as well, so its not as if she did everything with my Dad by my side as well. She was even willing to pay for me to go to Private school at one point when we nearly moved to London.

My Mum certainly did not and does not live up to the young Mum stereotype. I do, however, know a lot of Mothers that do. However, I also know a lot of OLDER Mothers who live up to it as well. At the end of the day, my Mum was just very mature whereas a lot of teenage girls aren't but some are. I think young Mums can be just as good as older mums, however, we see a lot of them that aren't adequate because unfortunately, unlike my own Mum, they haven't quite reached that level of maturity yet.

Think it's more the latter to be honest. I think most know the consequences of a fertilised egg and all that but I believe many just want a baby because they are lulled into a false sense of security that they have 'found the man of their dreams and will be with him forever'. When in reality, they're both young and the lady is often short sighted and the man is the one who doesn't have any responsibility when things go wrong in their relationship.

I believe the welfare system can be blamed, whereby it can often encourage young, poor, uneducated ladies to have babies so as to get a council house and all the state related benefits related to being poor and having a baby at the same time. This needs to be rectified, however it is a very tetchy subject. I, however, do not believe most pregnant teenage mothers embark on such an exploitative agenda, however.

Poor girls are much more likely to get pregnant than their better off counterparts and this creates a cycle of poverty. Perhaps the fact that they have, most of time, had an unfulfilled upbringing, they believe with motherhood, they can provide a better life for their child, when in reality, this is rarely the case.