Teen Pregnancy

The discussion of teen pregnancy is a topic that as of last April became very important to me, as my 17 year old sister Kari gave birth to my beautiful niece Kennedy.  My sisters always kept her dating life private until 4 months before she gave birth.  My mom was first told that my sister may be pregnant in September of 2010 from one of my sisters friends.  When my mom approached my sister about the issue my sister denied, my mom let her be and told her it was not something that she could hide. By December my sister had gained 40 pounds and for her that was a lot as she's always been very slender girl.  My mom finally took her to the doctor at this point she was felt more comfortable talking about being pregnant with my mom and me but still wasn't telling many of her friends as i think she still felt ashamed of getting pregnant even though many of her friends had children. 

The First time I met Anthony Kennedy's dad was when Kari was in the delivery room.  After Kari was back at home Anthony was over every day whenever he could to help Kari.  However going from being able to do whatever they wanted whenever they wanted to being parents was stressful for both of them and caused fighting.  Anthony and Kari broke up and he maybe comes to see Kennedy once every two weeks. He also has not given my sister any support money to help with the expenses of a child though he's working full time.  My mom has had to help my sister out with baby supplies.

With more and more teens becoming pregnant communities and government programs have created support groups and programs to help them deal and continue with there lives.  A program in our community to help teen parents is a school program where they can bring there child with them to school and day care is provided, while they work to complete their high school education.  These programs are great way for young parents to get the education they need to go to college or get a job that will pay them enough to support themselves and their child.