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Guidance for Grown-Ups
July 2007
Pregnancy Pause

I'm Pregnant—Who Do I Tell Now? (link back to feature)

The Answers to Your Questions

The purpose of this activity is to help teens imagine how it would feel to learn you are pregnant.
  1. Introduce the topic of teen pregnancy by posing some open-ended rhetorical questions to the group. Let them know you don't expect answers but that you are hoping to get them thinking about the topic in a new way. Here are some questions: Have you ever imagined being pregnant? What does it feel like? What are you thinking about? What if you found out right now that you were pregnant? How would it change how you think about the future? Would you need time or space to adjust to the news? Would you want anyone to know? Who would you seek out for support?


  2. Next, ask them to read "Lives Change Forever" by Casandra Thomson and " Hiding the Truth," by Rocio Pineda. [Editors' Note: These two teens chose to keep their babies, but other teens might decide to terminate their pregnancy or give their baby up for adoption. Below are resources that can provide stories about alternative choices.]


  3. Give teens time to write a fictional account of a teen who learns she is pregnant. Ask them to give the main character a name, a hometown, a year in school, and a physical description. Where does the scene take place? Ask them to include the father or a reference to him, as well as members of the teen's family or her closest friends. What does she say to them? What do they say back? What will the main character do next?


    Film
    I Had an Abortion
  • This documentary features candid interviews with 10 women, ages 21-85, who describe their choices and their lives. 2005. 55 min. Not Rated. By Gillian Aldrich and Jennifer Baumgardner. Available at Women Make Movies, wmm.com.

Problem Solving: Exploring Options, Giving Advice

The purpose of this activity is to provide teens with some action steps they could consider if they, or someone they know, becomes pregnant.
  1. One way to gain support during a stressful time is by talking about the situation with someone else. Ask the teens to read "Deciding Who to Tell/Setting the Mood/Breaking the Ice." Note that these articles are written to a person who is pregnant. Can the teens rewrite the bullets to help someone who wants to be a good friend to someone who is pregnant? Perhaps the rewritten bullets could also be appropriate for a teen who finds out he is a father, too.


  2. In the interview with Amy Eiferman, "What to Think About Before You Spill the Beans," Eiferman reminds readers that pregnancy is a "time-sensitive" situation. It is important to assess and consider one's options quickly and effectively. Ask the teens to read the entire interview and underline what they think is the most important advice. Have them share what they underlined with the larger group.


  3. One way to tackle an uncertain situation is to learn as much as possible about one's options. Ask the teens to make a list of places where they could turn for information and support as a pregnant teen or friend of a pregnant teen. They could keep this list somewhere private in case they need to use it down the road.


  4. Ask the teens to write a letter of support to the person who is pregnant. Ask them to try to remain unconditional. In other words, challenge them to hold off on judgments, either about how that person became pregnant or what she may choose for her future. Tell them how they will support that person for years to come. Write from the point of view of a best friend, close sister, or cousin — or write the letter to yourself.

Make a Historical and Global Connection: Changing Options

The purpose of this activity is to help teens gain perspective on the issues of adolescent pregnancy and choice outside of the United States.
  1. Did you know? Here are some statistics about global adolescent reproductive health you can share with the teens in your group:
    • Worldwide, over 200 million women have no access to modern, effective contraception. In the developing world, lack of access to family planning results in some 76 million unintended pregnancies each year. (advocatesforyouth.org)

    • About 90 percent of adolescent births (12.8 million) occur each year in developing countries. In sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, 28 to 29 percent of women give birth by age 18. (advocatesforyouth.org)

    • Approximately 40 percent of Jamaican women have given birth at least once before they reach the age of 20. (advocatesforyouth.org)

    • In Paraguay, a pregnant adolescent's risk of dying is 52 times higher than in the U.S. Nearly 20 percent of adolescent female deaths in Paraguay are attributable to complications of pregnancy or childbirth. In Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador, the percentages are 13, 8.2 and 7.2, respectively. (advocatesforyouth.org)

    • In the developing world, young women generally are expelled from school if they become pregnant, and they rarely return. A 1993 study in Jamaica found that 32 percent of young women who had ever been pregnant became pregnant for the first time while still in school and that almost 60 percent of these pregnancies occurred before the fourth year of secondary school. Of these young women, only 16 percent returned to school after the birth of their first child. Eighty-six percent of those who became pregnant while in primary school never advanced to secondary school. (advocatesforyouth.org)



  2. With new knowledge in hand, and perhaps additional knowledge if the teens are able to conduct further research on their own, ask the teens to observe out loud or in writing the major differences between becoming pregnant in the United States versus the countries they've read about. If they were to learn they were pregnant, what country would they want to live in?


  3. Ask the teens to think like researchers. If they were to compare the rate of adolescent pregnancy in the U.S. to other countries, what other kinds of information would they need or want to compare? Following is a list of possibilities in no particular order:
    • Age at time of pregnancy

    • Circumstances of pregnancy (was it intended?)

    • Use of contraception

    • Access to contraception

    • Ability to discuss contraception or require its use with male partner

    • Marital status

    • Sexual health education and the specifics of the curriculum taught

    • Space (or duration of time) between pregnancies



  4. Ask the teens to imagine they are preparing for a conference on global adolescent health. Their charge is to create an international policy to reduce adolescent mortality as a result of unintended pregnancy. Ask them to divide into the following teams: Education, Health Care, Violence Prevention, and Economic Equity. Each team must come up with three proposed action steps on behalf of teens who become pregnant throughout the world. Allow each team to present their proposal and field questions from their peers.


    Resources
  • Advocates for Youth — advocatesforyouth.org
    *Note all of the above statistics were compiled from Advocates for Youth fact sheets.

  • "The Sexual and Reproductive Health of Youth: A Global Snapshot" by Advocates for Youth — advocatesforyouth.org

  • The International Women's Health Coalition — iwhc.org

  • The Guttmacher Institute — guttmacher.org
Have you used Guidance for Grown-ups with your class or teen group? Tell us which ones you used and what kind of success you had with it. Did you put your own spin on it? Let us know.

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