Missing Voices: Teenage Pregnancy and Social Policy

Abstract

This study investigates how young women view and experience teenage pregnancy, and considers the social policy implications of the findings. It is set in New Zealand, a country with the third highest rate of teenage pregnancies in the OECD, and one where the known teenage pregnancy rate is almost the same as it was 20 years ago. The literature on teenage pregnancy is overwhelmingly quantitative and from a biomedical perspective. The present study, however, is qualitative. It provides policy makers with young women's perspectives on teenage pregnancy. The methodological framework is feminist and theories of healthy youth development lead to a consideration of the risk and protective factors in young women's lives before and during pregnancy, as well as after birth. The study is based on interviews with 18 teenage mothers,35 non-parenting young women, and seven adult women service providers. Prior to pregnancy most young mothers engaged in risky behaviours, had lost connections to families and schools, and lacked access to supportive adults. Unplanned pregnancies, delays accessing antenatal care, and lack of support during pregnancy left young mothers unprepared for labour and birth. Poor health during pregnancy contributed to difficult births and sick babies. The stigma of teenage pregnancy resulted in some young mothers not seeking support. There were many examples where adults missed opportunities to connect with young mothers in ways that could promote their social inclusion. Difficult relationships with partners, low income, and inadequate housing posed added risks. Contrary to public views, however, most young mothers felt their lives were better than before they were pregnant. They expressed optimism about the future, and wanted to improve their own lives and those of their children. The thesis concludes by identifying social policy implications for the education, health, and welfare sectors, framed within the strategic policy directions sought by New Zealand's current Labour Coalition Government. Key implications for the education sector are to place greater attention to retaining at-risk young women in schools, ensure school-based access to guidance, counselling and health services, and support a range of educational options for returning young mothers to schools. Suggestions are also made for how sexuality education might be more comprehensively delivered, and children of teenage mothers assured of high quality early childhood care and education. Health policy implications are for improvements in access to contraceptive advice, including emergency contraception. Pregnancy counselling, multidisciplinary, youth-specific services, youth-friendly practitioners, and attention to the health needs of teenagers' children also make important contributions to preventing and responding to teenage pregnancy. Improving young women's understandings of benefit entitlements, providing youth-friendly case management, and better assessing housing needs, are suggested as areas where current welfare policies could be reconsidered or new policies implemented. Young women's attitudes towards adoption and their hopes for their children's lives to be better than their own, lead to suggestions for ways of supporting their parenting skills and reducing stigma. Consistent with Government's focus on reducing inequalities and improving social and economic well-being, the thesis also suggests New Zealand develops a comprehensive, whole-of-government, teenage pregnancy strategy, for which the English approach could be used as a model.