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Birth Problem of Young Pregnant Teens
Incompleta pelvic development in young teenage girls often creates
a major problem at time of birth, leading to cesarean section.
Marriage and parenthood are for mature couples, for whom natural
delivery is normally possible because of full pelvic development.
Artwork shows disproportion of infant's head compared
with outlet of pelvis in young pregnant teenager
in contrast to normal pelvic development,
in mature mother-to-be.
lmmature Pelvlc Oevelopment
CESAREAN SECTION
1
Fufl Pelvlc Oevelopment
NATURAL DELIVERY
foullíne of lnfant"e head
f
Outllne of lnfant"a head
Living togcther got its start in the
last two decades. It began with the
hippie generation, the flower chil–
dren and the advent of coed dorms.
The trend gradually spread from
the subculture to mainstream socie–
ty. Today, personals in daily news–
papers are loaded with ads seeking
an
oppo~ite-sex
housemate, apart–
mentmate or roommate. While
sorne advertise for it, others pro–
gress into it from a going-steady
relationship.
But living together is nota happy
solution. The evidencecame to light
in a study by noted sociologist, Dr.
Nancy Moore Clatworthy, re–
ported in the November, 1977,Sev–
enteen
magazine.
Ironically, Dr. Clatworthy ac–
tuall y favored a living-together
arrangement before she began hcr
10-year study of the phenome–
non. 1n her study, she d iscovered
that married couples who had
lived together before marr iage
lost a measure of respect for one
another, and had a lower degree
of happi ness a nd feeling o f
adj ustment , compared to married
.S
co upl es that ha d not lived
.e:
~
together first.
...
l nterestingly too, Dr. Clatwor-
..______________________________
_. ~~.
thy's fi ndings disproved the argu-
causes snowballing effects, which
dcmand s tressful answers of thc
young mothers- to-be: Should 1
have the child ? Should 1 get an
abortion and snuff out its exis–
tence? Who'll pay the hospital
bi lis? S hould 1 be a one-parent
family, raising the child myself
without the physical, financia!,
and emotional benefit of the natu–
ral father?
For the maJe: Should 1 marry
hcr? Do 1 love her? What will we
live on? Am 1 ready for the rcspon–
sibili ty of raising a family?
For the parents: How could it
happcn to our daughter ? Our
son? Would it be best if we told
thcm to mar ry? Should we have
her get an abortion ? What do we
tell cverybody?
And for the c hi ld'? Wcll , chil–
dren's questions come later .
Teenage premari tal pregnan–
cies further compound life's prob–
lems. The deck is stacked agai nst
marital success. T he future of
such a marriage las ting is slim or
20
nonexistent. Up to 90 percent of
these kinds of marriages end in
divorce!
Besides the stress of the preg–
nancy itself. is the shock to family
and friends. And though there is
an increasingly permissive view
being adopted by parents about
sex, outward publ ic pressure s till
di sfavo rs premari ta l pregna n–
cies-because of the conse–
quences to the children who
didn't ask to be born to un thi nk–
ing teenagers.
Living In
Many young people today, older
couples too, maintain l iving
arrangements as if married, in a
living-together environment. But,
again , unexpected potential prob–
lems and hurts are associated
with this kind of unmarried sex–
ual s tyle.
Society now tacitly approves
living together, or "livi ng in" as
the young like to call it. l t is a
developing social trend.
ment of sorne that a coupl e
should live together first to see if
they are sex ually compatible.
" But the fi nding that surprised
me most," she confided, "con–
cerned sex. Couples who had
lived togcther before marriage
disagreed about it more often.
You'd assume that this would be
an area that could be satisfactori–
ly resolved in a living-together
period. Apparently it isn't."
A second major problem asso–
ciated with living together is a
lack of commitment. This shoots
down the common argument used
for living together outside of mar–
riage: "We' re committed to each
other, and don' t need a piece of
paper to prove it. "
Says Dr. Clatworthy: "Thc
other side of that argument is
obvious.
lf
there's no d ifference
in your rclationship, what's wrong
with adding one more symbol to
your total commitment? What
thcy are really saying is that they
(Continued on page 30)
The
PLAIN TRUTH