Underage Moms or Good Moms
Based on research, there has been a mixture of perspectives on whether or not there is a huge difference between children born from teenage mothers to children born from mature mothers (ages 21 and above). According to statistics, written by Cost and Henshaw’s article entitled Facts about Teenage Pregnancy, 3 in 10 teen American girls will get pregnant at least once before age 20. That's nearly 750,000 teen pregnancies every year. Less than 2% of teen moms earn a college degree by age 30. The United States has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the Western industrialized world. The average age that women are having their first child is currently around 28 years of age, up from 26.4 in 2015, and 26.3 in 2014.
Moreover, experts often focus on average or mean maternal age due to the birth outcomes that are associated with the age of the mother, such as multiple births and congenital disabilities. Therefore, before diving into the comparison between children’s capabilities based on the age group of their mothers, the focus will first begin with the research of mothers and their capabilities of bearing children.
Additionally, per Stickler’s article entitled “Maintaining a Healthy Pregnancy,” a woman’s health is essential to the good health of her baby. Women who eat well and exercise regularly along with regular prenatal care are less likely to have complications during pregnancy. They’re also more likely to successfully give birth to a healthy baby. Eating a nutritious diet during pregnancy is linked to fetal brain development, and a healthy birth weight, and it reduces the risk of many birth defects. A balanced diet will also reduce the risks of anemia, as well as other unpleasant pregnancy symptoms such as fatigue and morning sickness. Good nutrition is thought to help balance mood swings and it may improve labor and delivery as well (2014).
These are all the practices proven to promote a healthy pregnancy. Despite age groups, studies show that mothers are more than capable of delivering a healthy baby just by keeping a healthy lifestyle during their pregnancy and or before. There haven't been sufficient studies that prove what a mother should do to guarantee a perfect delivery or a hundred percent healthy baby, however, later on in this research there is a slight difference due to age factors with mothers.
On the other hand, all pregnancies are prone to complications despite the mother’s age and health, or economic situation. For the baby, the most common problem is low birth weight. A baby who is born weighing less than five and a half pounds is considered low birth weight. Per the Department of Health, studies and surveys show, that low birth weight is the number one risk factor for death in the first year of life and for life-long health problems. It can be caused by being born too early, by growing too slowly, or for some children, both. A woman's diet in early life has more impact on her baby's birth weight than the food she eats as an adult, researchers say (2017).
Moreover, the surprise findings by Prof Christopher Kuzawa at Northwestern University in Illinois suggest that you are what your mother ate and that a woman's diet in her adult life has less influence on her baby's health than previously thought. Sample’s article stated that within the bounds of a healthy balanced diet, the overall quantity of food that a mother eats is unlikely to have large effects on her baby's birth weight. The findings emerged from a 30-year study that followed more than 3,000 pregnant women in the Philippines whose children have now begun to have babies of their own. Kuzawa said that while there was good evidence that unborn children benefit from their mothers taking extra folate and that they are harmed by toxins such as lead, mercury, excessive alcohol, and biphenyl A, which is used to make some plastics, the picture was less clear on the roles of calories, protein, fat and carbohydrates (2014).
The study suggested that a mother's diet as an adult did not affect her baby's birth weight. Far more important were the mother's health and nutrition as a baby and toddler, and even the grandmother's diet when she was pregnant with the baby's mother. A person's health at birth is governed by a long history of health and nutrition going back more than a generation (Sample). 'Our findings add to growing evidence that the key to optimizing the health of future generations is to promote good nutrition and health of infants and young children who will be the next generation of mothers,' quotes Kuzawa.
Finally, low birth weight is associated with a raft of health problems, including raised blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and increased insulin resistance, an early sign of diabetes. People who are born light also face a greater risk of heart disease. This scientifically proves that birth weight complications are most likely from a mother’s generational ancestry rather than eating habits during pregnancy. Henceforth, both mature moms and teenage moms are either at risk of having children with low birth weight or not.
Children Born from Teen Moms
There were nearly 250,000 babies born in 2014 to teen moms, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. About 77 percent of these pregnancies were unplanned. A teenage pregnancy can change the course of a young mom’s life. It puts her in a place where she’s responsible not only for herself but also for another human being. Carrying a baby and becoming a mom not only creates physical changes (Nall, 2016).
Women also go through mental changes. Young moms face added stress from:
- sleepless nights
- arranging childcare
- making doctor’s appointments
- attempting to finish high school
While not all teenage mothers are affected greatly by mental and physical changes, many are. A research study published in the journal Pediatrics studied more than 6,000 Canadian women, ranging in age from adolescents to adults. The researchers found that girls ranging from 15 to 19 experienced postpartum depression at a rate that was twice as high as women aged 25 and older. Another study reported that teen mothers face significant levels of stress that can then lead to increased mental health concerns.
In addition to higher rates of postpartum depression, teenage mothers have higher rates of depression. Teenage mothers are more prone to suicidal thoughts than peers who aren’t mothers. Teenage girls who are pregnant, especially if they don't have support from their parents, are at risk of not getting adequate prenatal care. Prenatal care is critical, especially in the first months of pregnancy. Prenatal care screens for medical problems in both mother and baby monitors the baby's growth and deals quickly with any complications that arise. Prenatal vitamins with folic acid, ideally taken before getting pregnant, are essential in helping to prevent certain birth defects, such as neural tube defects.
On the other hand, an article titled “Girlhood, not Motherhood: Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy” noted that adolescent pregnancies are a global problem that occurs in high, middle, and low-income countries. Around the world, adolescent pregnancies are more likely to occur in marginalized communities, commonly driven by poverty and lack of education and employment opportunities. Adolescent pregnancy remains a major contributor to maternal and child mortality and intergenerational cycles of ill-health and poverty. Pregnancy and childbirth complications are the leading cause of death among 15 to 19-year-old girls globally, with low and middle-income countries accounting for 99% of global maternal deaths of women ages 15 to 49 years.
Adolescent mothers (ages 10 to 19 years) face higher risks of eclampsia, puerperal endometritis, and systemic infections than women aged 20 to 24 years. Additionally, some 3.9 million unsafe abortions among girls aged 15 to 19 years occur each year, contributing to maternal mortality and lasting health problems. Furthermore, the emotional, psychological, and social needs of pregnant adolescent girls can be greater than those of other women.
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Most of the challenges teenage mom face depend on their support system. Teen childbearing with low or a lack of support system can affect the pregnancy stage. This, in turn, will affect the development of the child. Unlike mature moms (ages 25 and above), teen mothers are not prepared for pregnancy as well as providing for a child at such a young age.
Mature Mothers (Ages 25+)
As mentioned before, few studies show ages above 25 would be an appropriate age for women to bear children. Per some scientific research, most doctors believe that women at this age are fully developed and well-prepared for the challenges of being a mom.
The message that ages 20 to 35 are the best for a woman to have a child should be taught in schools alongside education about teenage pregnancies and contraception, the leader of the UK's maternity doctors has said (Campbell).
Dr. Tony Falconer, the president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RCOG) warned against the pronounced trend towards older motherhood and said women and couples have to become 'better at resolving the conflict' between their careers and family plans. In an interview Dr. Falconer had with The Guardian Post he stated,
'It's never our responsibility [as doctors] to tell people when they should have their family, because there are all sorts of societal pressures. There's no doubt that between 20 and 35 is the time to have your children. We are building up a difficulty for ourselves as a society by people's expectations that they will wait until they are older. That's a very complex issue, but it is a problem” (2010).
Furthermore, Campbell mentions in his studies of The Best Age to Become a Mother, the risks of having children later in life are well documented:
There’s a higher chance the baby will have issues at birth, like Down’s syndrome, or be more likely to develop autism and Alzheimer’s later in life. It’s also simply harder to get pregnant as time marches on. But a study of more than 1.5 million Swedes shows there are some pretty big benefits as well. Kids born to older mothers are taller, less likely to quit school, more likely to attend university, and tend to perform better on standardized tests than siblings who were born before them. More fodder for the frenzied debate about birth order (2010).
There was a theory or speculation that was provided by some research to consider a woman born in 1960 who had one baby when she was 20 and another when she was 40. A lot of things happened in those intervening 20 years, including dramatic improvements in medicine, mortality, and education: the kid born in 2000 is much more likely to go to college than the sibling born in 1980. Women around the world are postponing having kids to later for reasons ranging from better access to birth control, improved professional opportunities, and rising economic uncertainty (2010).
Moreover, the mentioned studies proved that people nowadays are more health-conscious and well-aware of the capabilities of being pregnant. Compared to previous years where teenage pregnancies have been more of a taboo subject or difficult conversation between parents and their children, I believe times have impacted a change in that practice. Teenagers are more exposed to conversations around the consequences and challenges of being a teen mom. There are more support systems that teenagers can rely on when their socioeconomic situations are not deemed appropriate for raising a child.
Smoking or drinking alcohol by the mother is one of the main causes of poor growth because it cuts down on the baby's supply of oxygen and food. Poor nutrition, birth defects, genetic conditions, mother's health problems such as high blood pressure, hazards in the environment including lead or tobacco smoke, and multiple births (twins, triplets, etc.) may also cause low birth weight. In many cases, the exact cause of low birth weight is not known.
But Falconer said there is strong evidence that women who leave starting a family until they are 35 will have reduced fertility and so find it harder to conceive, even more so once they hit 40. Older women are also more likely to face medical complications. They include a greater risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, multiple pregnancies, cancer, needing a cesarean or assisted delivery, fetal anomalies such as Down's syndrome, and even a heart attack in pregnancy, albeit that is a rare event, he said.
'Reproductively, tragedies can result as a direct result of later motherhood,' said Falconer, citing the case of a 40-year-old woman who, carrying her first child, experiences a stillbirth. (The stillbirth rate is one in 200 across all ages, but higher for older women). While younger would-be mothers can resolve to try again for another baby, the older woman may not be able to because she is less fertile – 'an awful, appalling situation that most of us have come across at some stage in our career,' Falconer said (2010).
Dr. Falconer as mentioned in Campbell’s research, cited a graph in a medical textbook that showed the chances of a woman losing a baby to miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, or stillbirth relative to her age when she conceived. It is about a 30% risk for a 40-year-old and 45% for a 45-year-old. 'The incidence of tragic outcome and sadness will be more common the older the mother is,' said Falconer (2010). He said he wanted the message about 20 to 35 being the ideal years for childbearing to be much better understood.
'When you're educating children about contraception and teenage pregnancy, you could introduce other concepts at the same time, such as parenting and feeding babies, and you might tag on to what the best age is to have children. As a 15-year-old girl, when you're doing your GCSE preparation, it might just sow a seed for them if you give them information at that stage that the best time to have children was 20-35” (Campbell).
Medically proven, children born from teenage mothers are at higher risk of health problems than children born to older moms; however, despite the age factor, all moms are incapable of guaranteeing a perfectly healthy pregnancy or baby, and they are all prone to risks including, socially, mentally, and economically aspects of their lives.
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