15 and Pregnant – Help! What You Need to Know About Teenage Pregnancies as a Pregnant Teen in Texas
If you’re reading this as a fifteen-year-old, you’re most likely just starting your first year of high school and showing off your newest Christmas presents to your friends. Perhaps you’re even dreaming about getting your driver’s license, buying your first car, and what you’d like to do after graduation. Life seems full of opportunities, hope and excitement until — you wake up each morning feeling sick. You know you don’t have the flu, so in an attempt to put your mind at ease, you have a friend buy you a pregnancy test. Huddled in the school bathroom stall, you wait nervously for the results to appear. Double pink lines staring up at you. You’re pregnant.
First of all, don’t panic. Everything is going to be okay. Hope is not lost. Teenage pregnancies are happening more and more frequently as time passes. You are not alone, and there are options available to you. How you choose to move forward can depend on your background – beliefs, religion, or family – and play a part in what you decide to do. Adoption Choices of Texas can help you if you decide to give your child a chance at a better life if you are not ready to have a child in any aspect. No matter if it is mentally, emotionally, physically, or financially. There is no shame in choosing your child over yourself.
If you need help with adoption now, you can call us at 945-444-0333, text us at 945-444-0333, or email us here.
Choosing Adoption is a Selfless Act
While making this decision, it is important to know that placing your baby up for adoption doesn’t make you selfish. It makes you the exact opposite. By choosing to make the most selfless and loving sacrifice imaginable, you are giving your child a chance at a better life, an adoptive family who can’t have children on their own a new family member, and a chance for you to get yourself to a better place. Just because you are giving up your baby does not mean you are giving up on them.
You can Still be a Part of Your Child’s Life
Even after you place your child with their new adoptive family – who you get to choose – you have a chance to still be in your child’s life. The level of involvement you have depends on what type of adoption you choose. There are three types of adoption: open, semi-open, and closed. Adoption Choices of Texas can help you figure out which one works out the best for you. For instance, if it is important to you to keep in contact with your child, the open or semi-open may be your best option. That said, remember that contact is also up to the adoptive family.
Let the Birth Father Help with Decisions Concerning Your Child
Make sure you keep your birth father in the loop. He is the parent just as much as you are. He has every right to know what is going on and be a part of every decision regarding your child. Teenage pregnancies are not just the birth mother’s responsibility. Don’t know who the father is? There are ways of finding out before the child is born without harming the child or the birth mother.
The birth father has many responsibilities – teach, love, and protect are just a few of them. Many times the birth father is hindered or incapable of completing their duties for many reasons. For example, he isn’t able to provide physically, mentally, emotionally, or financially — or he has chosen not to be involved in the adoption process of his child’s life. The reason behind his lack of involvement and/or interest could be that he is stressed out, still needs to adjust to the situation, or doesn’t know what to do. Give yourself a chance to hear him out and let him get to a place where he can fulfill his duty better and more completely.
You are Not Alone in Your Pregnancy and/or Adoption Journey
Adoption Choices of Texas is a loving adoption agency that will help you every step of the way. From telling your parents to your boyfriend – and the birth father if they are two different people – to getting ready to make the hardest but most selfless and loving decision you can ever make.
Throughout the adoption process, remember to find time to de-stress and take care of yourself. Teenage pregnancies are hard on the body, mind, and heart. Having a friend who will provide constructive support and not be enabling will help you throughout your adoption journey.
While making this sacrifice, make sure that no one is forcing you or scaring you one way or another. This decision is yours and no one else’s. As we at Adoption Choices of Texas believe, “Giving up a baby is not giving up!”
As an expectant woman or birth parent, to learn more about adoption, contact Adoption Choices of Texas. You can call us at 945-444-0333, text us at 945-444-0333, or email us here. If you are hoping to adopt, please visit us here. We look forward to helping you through your adoption journey!
Meet the Author: Samantha Wilder is 19 years old and writes fictional stories in her pastimes. While focusing on fictional based stories, she has dipped her fingers into many types of writing such as poetry, essays (both personal and factual), and helped friends in the past prep for blogs. Her writing history began in her 6th-grade year but picked up more drive and passion in 8th grade. She shares her work and assistance to her friends and family who join her in her love for writing.