Teen parents focus on future Several teenage moms get help from family

Elaine Marsilio

Jun. 25, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Susana Dominguez watched her 1-year-old son, Jaciel, smile as his father held him.

She stood a few yards away from Jaciel and her 26-year-old boyfriend, Gabriel Acosta, as all three attended a special event with relatives.

Susana's family threw a party to celebrate Jaciel's first birthday on a recent Saturday, and the 17-year-old mother documented the event with her digital camera.

While others swung at the pinata, Susana stayed fixed on Jaciel, comfortably cradled in Acosta's arms.

Susana captured the moment with her camera and motioned a firm "thumbs up" to Acosta as an almost goofy smile crossed her face.

But not every day being a teen mother appears this easy or draws smiles, and Susana's quick to admit she and Acosta should have waited to have a child.

CAUSES OF TEEN PREGNANCY

The culture a teenager grows up in and how involved their parents are play major roles in a teen's decision to have sex, said Moss Hampton, associate professor and regional chair of the Obstetrics and Gynecology department at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine at the Permian Basin.

Hampton said hormones also play a part in teenagers' sex drives.

It's a natural drive that all humans have, but for teens they're likely going to act the way their families expect them to, said Laura Mathew, health services director for the Ector County Independent School District.

But, Mathew's quick to add that the picture's a complicated one to figure out.

Several teenagers get involved with older people. In Susana's case, she and Gabriel Acosta started seeing each other when she was 12 -- and he was 22.

Acosta said he didn't see Susana as a 12-year-old, but instead as someone much older who acted mature for her age. Susana's mother and father, Marisol and Antonio Dominguez, found out about their relationship and pursued charges in 2004, but a grand jury declined to indict Acosta.

"We always thought that he took advantage of her being too young," Marisol Dominguez. 36, said.

But now, Marisol Dominguez said Susana's family works to get along with Acosta.

"We try to accept it in a way because of the baby," she said.

PARENTING

A number of teen mothers and fathers receive help from their parents following the birth of their children, and others also find support in their parents while going through their pregnancies.

Teen Parent Center student Amy Saulsbury found a support system recently in her mom, Jill, as well as a family friend as the teen went through her pregnancy.

The 17-year-old would sit in bed and ring a bell for her mom to bring her food or arrange things near her. Amy and her mom, along with other family members, would usually eat lunch together consisting of anything Amy craved, particularly Mexican food. Teenagers tend to rely heavily on their parents or even grandparents to care for their children.

Fourteen-year-old Belinda Douglas gave legal custody of her baby, Sebastian, to her 54-year-old grandmother, Martha Bonilla.

Bonilla's currently going through the adoption process for Sebastian, who was born Aug. 20, 2007, and she said she considers the child her own.

Belinda agreed to give the baby up for adoption, Bonilla said.

Belinda said she thinks the world of her son, who's "everything to me."

"He's so cute," she said. "He's so adorable. He's just gorgeous."

She said having Sebastian wasn't difficult because she had her mother and grandmother to help her care for the child.

Bonilla said Sebastian's father, 23-year-old Richard Munguia, was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to sexual assault of a child and is currently serving time in the Ector County Detention Center.

But, despite everything, Belinda said she felt more mature after having Sebastian.

"Your life changes whenever you have a baby," she said, adding that her future plans altered slightly since giving birth.

On the other hand, Former Permian students Sandy Baiza and Steven Velasco said they try to care for their son, Isaiah, as much as they can without relying much on their own parents.

"We could leave him to our parents, too, but they work, too," Baiza said.

Baiza and Velasco, who both admit to skipping class and getting into trouble while at Permian, consider their child a way to stay out of harm's way and bad situations.

In fact, both said they want to give their son a good foundation by understanding the importance of life and opportunities.

Susana said she wants to raise her son, Jaciel, with an understanding of women and how to treat them since she's dealt with many guys who didn't treat her or her family members with respect. She wants her son to know how to respect others.

Susana's mom, Marisol Dominguez, recently started caring for Jaciel in the daytime while Susana attends the Teen Parent Center.

Marisol Dominguez said she helps her daughter because she was a teen mother and knows how difficult it can be.

Susana takes a short drive to her mother's southside Odessa home and drops Jaciel off or she stays and visits on the weekends.

"She comes almost all the time," Marisol Dominguez said.

IS TEEN PREGNANCY MORE ACCEPTED?

Mathew said teen mothers seem to be accepted among young people, who also appear to also tolerate things like gay and interracial marriages.

"I think the younger generation doesn't want to point a finger at anybody," Mathew said.

Hampton said the teen pregnancy rate was high in the 1950s, while it was taboo to conceive a child while someone's technically still a child themselves.

"The fact that teenagers are having babies isn't anything new," he said, noting many young girls get pregnant and care for the child as a single parent.

It's not so taboo anymore. Now, he said, people seem to shrug it off when they see a teenage mother.

"That's a lot of the deal with teen pregnancy is that people have looked and go, 'Another pregnant teen, well, that's too bad,' " Hampton said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics recently reported the teen pregnancy rate in the United States declining 5 percent between 2002 and 2004 in girls 15 to 19 years old.

The CDC also reported from 1990 to 2004 the pregnancy rate nationally in teenagers 15 to 19 years old decreased by 38 percent from 116.8 pregnancies per 1,000 girls to 72.2.

In 2002 in Texas, 19,730 of the state's 372,369 total births were by mothers 17 years old and younger, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services data.

TEEN PREGNANCY IN ECISD

Mathew, who works with several teens at the district's Teen Parent Center, said many of the students care for their children properly and share responsibilities with their live-in boyfriends who've fathered the children.

In those cases, where students take initiative and provide for their kids, Mathew questions whether it's right for anyone -- an educator, a nurse or a bystander -- to "impose their values" on a teenager.

"Who am I to say that's wrong? ... It's not just one size fits all," Mathew said.

This complicated picture of teenagers having children has nurses like Mathew grappling to find better methods in educating young girls and boys about sexual activity.

Mathew said statistics show about 50 percent of high school students will have sex before they graduate high school, and a comprehensive sex education program for all students could be effective if it targets students one-on-one.

Educators need to discuss students' goals with them and determine on an individual basis the best methods to teach them sex education, she said.

Mathew complied a chart recently detailing the number of teenage pregnancies in the Ector County Independent School District and found that -- as of early April -- a total of 242 girls were pregnant or had attended the Teen Parent Center.

TPC's enrollment reached 176 students as of early April, and Odessa High led the secondary campuses with 30 pregnant students.

Permian had 17.

Career Center had 12.

Bonham Junior High had four.

SEX ED

ECISD seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders have a choice to attend ECISD board-approved, abstinence-only sex education courses.

If they or their parents don't want them to be a part of it, they can usually sit in the library or do busy work.

Several teen mothers, especially those at TPC, said abstinence-only sex education doesn't work, and students should receive a more comprehensive curriculum that includes contraceptive information.

Dominguez said abstinence-only education doesn't work because teens aren't going to wait to have sex just because someone tells them it's the right choice.

Ultimately, it comes down to an individual decision. But in most cases, Susana said, teens will err on the side of their urges.

"They're going to do it, and they're going to keep telling you they aren't," Susana said.

Adanna Gonzales, a former Crane High School student who attends TPC, also said abstinence-only sex education isn't effective.

"They make you believe that birth control and condoms don't work," she said.

The 17-year-old remembers being pregnant with her son, Orlando Villegas and sitting through the abstinence-only session and thinking how awkward it was to be told to wait until marriage.

"I know you should be abstinent, but there's a lot of people who aren't," Adanna said. "They're not stopping people from having sex. "They're just stopping them from using birth control and condoms."

Life Center executive director Judy Rouse said the abstinence-only program was modified recently to incorporate more information about relationships and how they relate to sexuality.

She said the program doesn't place judgment on anyone and focuses on directing students to understand they have ownership of their bodies and choices.

"We want to empower them; empower them to make choices, if they'll take us up on it," she said.

Rouse said students who aren't sexually active are more likely to fully understand the message of the program: to delay sexual activity until marriage.

"Why marriage?" she asked. "Because it's a healthy and committed relationship."

For students like Adanna who went through the program as a pregnant teen, Rouse said the program works to help the student recognize their goals and evaluate their relationships.

"That's where we go in and say let's think about it ... what commitment is," Rouse said.

WHAT NOW?

Several teen mothers said their perspectives have changed since having children, and they encouraged other teenagers to wait to have children, citing costs and time as issues.

With many teen mothers living with their boyfriends, or the baby's father, most said they consider themselves married, or they feel married.

It's a lot of responsibility, teens said, because not only are they caring for a child, but they're going to school, cleaning house and making dinner.

For Susana, it's a constant, daily cycle for her and her boyfriend, Acosta.

"He wants to come home to a clean house," she said. "Sometimes I just can't do everything with school."

Many teens receive direction from their parents.

Amy attended TPC, too, and said her family would push her to get up in the mornings and go to school so she could graduate.

"She's had a lot of love and support," her mom, Jill Saulsbury, said.

Many teens said they plan to graduate high school and pursue college degrees following the birth of their children.

Solutions

Several medical professionals have come out and said abstinence-based education doesn't work, but most agree abstinence is the best thing to prevent pregnancy.

A number of teenagers said they would've waited to have children but not necessarily have waited to have sex.

And some are quite realistic. Baiza, the 18-year-old mother of one, said it quite bluntly.

"If you don't want a baby, then don't have sex," Baiza said.

Several teenagers said that since having their children, they now use birth control methods like shots, pills or condoms.

Baiza said since having her son she encourages Velasco to use a condom.

"I tell him, 'Don't take that condom off, because I don't want another baby,' " Baiza said.

And other teens said they want to know more about how to protect themselves sexually.

Parents wanting to educate their teenagers about sex, contraception, STDs and other issues related to sexual activity have tools available to them.

One recent idea on the market is a DVD produced by Surfside, Fla.-based EduCouch called "Teens, Sex and Health," which offers parents and teens a way to learn comprehensive sex education from birth control to contraception to drugs and alcohol and how they relate to sexual activity.

EduCouch producer Marianna Kheyfots said most schools teach abstinence-only sexual education and the producers were seeing a need for another avenue to teach teens about sex by using medical and family planning clinic professionals to discuss the issues.

"It's not saying you shouldn't have sex ... if they're going to do something, you might as well be informed," Kheyfots said.

HOW EFFECTIVE IS BIRTH CONTROL?

--Planned Parenthood's website said fewer than 1 out of 100 women a year will become pregnant using birth control methods like an implanted rod, a patch, a ring or a pill if taken as directed.

SOURCE: PLANNED PARENTHOOD

Editor's note: This is the second in a two-part series. Look for the first part on oaoa.com.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0145-26235775