The+juno+syndrome

Teenage mums in Britain

The Juno syndrome

Is teenage pregnancy a serious social problem?

**//Seven per cent of teenage mothers in Britain today are under 16 years old, and 1 per cent of these mothers are involved in crimes and/or drugs and alcohol. That is pretty extreme if you ask me. Are the teenage mothers not healthy for the child? Some may say so, and some might not agree. After the film “Juno” Came out in 2007, about a teenage girl who gets pregnant, the real debates started. Many people are saying that teenage mothers can’t be committed and competent. They say that teenage pregnancy is a terrible thing. Is it? This is when the concept “Juno syndrome” came.//**

- Idea, photography and post-processing by Polina Sergeeva

In Britain today, teenage pregnancy is more common than in many other countries in Europe. But it is still not accepted among people. Still, a lot of people leave teenage parents no hope, and look upon them as high school dropouts, who will never get an education, who will forever be low paid, and that the fathers are feckless teenagers who will abandone their family in a few years. In an article I found //in “The Times”, March 11, 2008//, they called teenage pregnancy “A serious social problem”. Haven’t anyone thought of this as a good thing. Teenage mums may be young, In the middle of an education and still be living with their parents, but most of the teenagers who gets pregnant does give up their lives to raise a baby. Maybe they don’t give their children the coolest and most expensive clothes, or the biggest house, but they are still able to give them love and attention. In some cultures young motherhood is encoraged, and as fertility rates are highest in the teenage years, nature does not seem to deem it a disaster.



An academic research shows that a baby can be a positive turning point for teenagers, making them more determined to gain qualifications, focus on improving their lives and shun some of the “wayward” friends they may have had. Ruth Pitt is an executive producer of a documentary called “Pramfaced Babies”. She says “These young women, though none planned their babies, are incredibly committed to them: The children are put at the absolute center of their world, and they just get on with it. I have a suspicion that there are a lot of middle-class families whose love for their child is partly conditional. It’s related to achieving academically. But a lot of these teenage mums don’t expect anything of their children. They love them for what they are, and their overwhelming priority is looking after them themselves” After working on the film about ideal motherhood. A wealthy woman in the middle of her thirties would most lightly not give up her job or her life to raise a baby, but hire someone else to do the job, while she couldn’t. Pregnant teenagers often have help from the nearest family as well, grandparents, parents, siblings and friends. This is positive for a child in a young age, to feel loved. Some communities have help centers for young parents, but 95 of the participants are often mothers.

In the statistics it shows that no other country on west-Europe has as many teenage mothers compared to births as Britain. 1 out of 10 children is born by a teenager. It has been this way for many years, but now the government wants the British to reduce the amount of teenage births with 50% in 2011. The last year has started to show some results. From 1998 to 2009 the amount of teenage pregnancy under 18 years old was reduced with 11.8% in Britain. These numbers are shown by the national statistics bureau in Britain earlier this year.

It is not a matter of course that the lives of children born from teenage parents will end badly. Rather the opposite. It seems that these kids are surrounded by many grownups and more safety and love than many other kids, and most teenage girls are mature enough to take on the responsibility. To them, the mothers, I bet it’s not ideal. To them it would have been better with a good education and better economic support and safety. The government should focus more on making the situation better, than making it disappear. They should invent a group for the dads, so they could come together and talk as well. I think this would get them more involved in the prosess. The government sayes that having babies in a young age ruins lives. If you have ever seen old ladies that has waited too long, and don't have the posdibility to have a child, you can see that to not have a child can ruin a life to.

My inspiration and source for this text is an article from The Times, written by Carol Midgley. The queen's english chapter two, page 99 - 100.