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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   Related Stories • Plenty of help available for pregnancy, childbirth 6/24/07   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Sunday, June 24, 2007 Youngest mothers' bodies and minds just aren't ready By Melissa Slager, Herald writer Christine is 13 years old. But she hasn't been to her eighth-grade classes lately - she's battling morning sickness. Two months into her pregnancy, the Snohomish girl said her age has never meant much to her. "I've never really acted my age and never really looked my age," she said. "I don't really know how a normal 13-year-old acts." In a short skirt and high heels, Christine said though she may not have planned to have a child, she's excited about becoming a mother. "I'll have to grow up faster, do things different and be more responsible," she said. The girl, whom The Herald is not fully naming to protect her identity, represents a piece of the teenage pregnancy rate that often gets little notice. Nationwide, more than 6,700 girls age 10 to 14 gave birth to babies in 2004, the latest year available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many of them are victims of rape or incest. Christine said she has no regrets. But if she didn't blink at the 21-year age difference with the man who got her pregnant, the eyes of the law certainly did. And her guardian is working with Child Protective Services to bring second-degree rape charges against the man. These are the cases that shock and sadden - children bearing children. "People talk about teen pregnancy and that, in my mind, is the ... high-school girls experimenting with sex," said Dr. Frank Andersen, medical director for maternity services at Providence Everett Medical Center. "When you're talking 14 and down, that's a whole different group - medically, psychologically, socially." Puberty usually happens for girls sometime between age 9 and 16, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The average age for a girl's period to start is 12. Physically, girls younger than 15 aren't ready for pregnancy and are put at higher risk for complications, Andersen said. Their pelvis is not done developing, for example. Young girls also are more likely to experience hypertension during pregnancy and to need a Caesarean delivery. That doesn't touch on what are likely to be long-lasting psychological effects, he said. These youngest of mothers are rare. Andersen said he generally sees just a few 14-year-olds per year, and a younger girl once, if at all. The youngest he's seen was 12. Like older teens, the rates of pregnancy and birth among 10- to 14-year-olds has gone down in the last three decades. Still, it's showing signs of leveling off. The birth rate in 2004 was 2 percentage points higher than it was in 2003 - the first increase in a decade. At a difference of 116 births, that's barely a blip, statistically. But any number is alarming, said Bill Albert, deputy director for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy in Washington, D.C. "We may or may not as a culture agree whether 18-year-olds are ready for the responsibility of pregnancy, parenting and child-rearing. But no one thinks it's a good idea for these very young children to be having sex, let alone having children," he said. Yet before their 15th birthday, as many as 20 percent of girls - 1 of 5 - have had sex, according to the advocacy group. Younger teens are less likely to use contraceptives. And about 1 of 7 sexually experienced 14-year-old girls have been pregnant. "It's one of those lessons I think we've been slow to learn in this country," Albert said. "Whether we like it or not, it's an issue we have to deal with sooner, at an age before many of us may be comfortable." Reporter Melissa Slager: 425-339-3465 or mslager@heraldnet.com.

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