We
live in a time where there is an increasing disparity of income in our society.
We live in this system where there’s this “American Dream” to work hard, do our
very best, and gradually climb the social ladder until we reach a successful
future. Growing up in a certain level of wealth impacts our behavior greatly.
It shapes how we are programmed to behave as well as how we perceive we should
behave. However, this is a lie. It’s a dream now because it’s ideal, but it is
almost impossible, if not completely. It’s so difficult for individuals to move
up in social class, no matter how hard they work. It’s exceedingly complicated
for those in colleges and universities as well. There is this immense amount of
pressure put on each and every student to do well and gain financial success
and good jobs, or at least a job that will further them in their journey to
reaching an ideal future almost immediately as they graduate. There’s this
believe that we must live in a fast paced world and live to the fullest as quickly
and as much as we possibly can. But how can this be done when there’s a
constant downward spiral into poverty or financial distress? We’re expected to
spend more money on education and gain it all back quickly. If only it were
that simple, but I digress.
How
is this relevant to the topic of pregnancy? Once those who have fallen into the
downward spiral as previously mentioned, there is still a great deal of
pressure from society to continue on with significant landmarks, in lack of a
better word, of life. There’s this belief that one way to be independent in
life and start your own life would be to have children or your own family.
There are so many necessities for bearing children as well as raising them to
the best of one’s abilities in the only ways you know how. However, in
determining the factors of prenatal development, a mother in poverty will more
than likely not be able to provide all the essentials for their unborn child.
According to the article written by Mead, Kershaw, and Ickovics, it is more likely
for women, particularly in adolescent ages, to have more risk factors of
pregnancy in poverty,
such as “lower intelligence, poorer academic performance and school dropout,
preference for early childbearing, single-parent household, more siblings, maternal
characteristics (lower intelligence, lower educational attainment, premarital
birth), harsh/inconsistent disciplining, and poorer parent–child relationship,”
(2008).
Growing
up impoverished lacks provisions for the best brain development for unborn
children. Education, behavior, and language are all significant mental health
factors that are potentially not given the particular and necessary attention.
Other factors include diet, exercise, alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, and
second hand smoking. There is a horrible mindset we have in America that the
only cheap food is fast food or unhealthy junk. Not true. However, there are
those in poverty who believe that what they can afford is a unhealthy and
non-nutritional food versus going to the grocery store and purchasing fresh
fruits and vegetables that are vital for any person’s development, particularly
that of prenatal development. It’s also a matter of convenience, I suppose.
Regardless, there is no excuse why people cannot buy important members of the
food group if they have the means to buy food from a fast food restaurant for
their entire family. It doesn’t matter what social class you’re in.
The
overall question of this is how there can be more focus and care given to
prenatal development for those in poverty? According to Fiscella, this is such
a complex issue because “poverty undermines emotional and physical well-being,” (1996).
There are those who believe they must make do with what they have and have a
depressing mindset that nothing will improve, and that what they have or where
they are cannot be helped or changed, so why bother? The idea that must be
shared and enhanced with all those in poverty and all those who feel as though
they cannot work to better their lives is hope. Without hope, there is nothing.
I’ve come to find throughout my life that it is our duty as human beings to
help those in need, even if that simply means giving hope to those who have
none. It could change one’s entire life and provide them with the awareness to
a better life for themselves as well as their unborn child.
Fiscella,
K. (1996). Ethnicity, poverty, health, and the American dream. Families,
Systems, &
Health, 14(3), 361-363.
doi:10.1037/h0089921
Meade,
C. S., Kershaw, T. S., & Ickovics, J. R. (2008). The intergenerational
cycle of teenage
motherhood:
An ecological approach. Health Psychology, 27(4), 419-429.
doi:10.1037/0278-6133.27.4.419
I enjoyed seeing your side of a topic that I also wrote about myself! I like the idea that pregnancy in teens still has the expectation that these girls are to continue on with their lives and achieve important life milestones. For a woman to have a child as a teen, it can be hard to continue to achieve all of life's milestones, especially in poverty. Graduating high school, getting married, going to college, getting a high powered job, and other things of that nature are hard to accomplish when trying to take care of a small child. The standard of being able to do it all while having a small child and really still being a child themselves is next to impossible to accomplish. Being sure that prenatal development is a priority is is not really going to be considered at all if a teenage girl living in poverty is pregnant. Teenage girls want to take care of their child, but they may be doing the best they can with what they have. -Berit Ericson
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