Pregnant teens enjoy stories about others in situations like their own. For that matter, we all do. We want to know how others feel and how they cope with early pregnancy and parenthood. We don't have to search for books about teen pregnancy and parenting. As students in a high school teen parenting program, we've discovered that we can write our own stories, and that through the internet these stories can be used for others enjoyment and education. To start a story about being a teen mother we read selections from other's anonymous stories. After hearing the stories, we students are given time to write about a related experience in our lives.

What follows are our stories. Some of us wrote about our pregnancy, some what it is really like being a teen parent. Names are changed to protect the innocent.

When I was 13 I found out that I was pregnant. I had the worst time trying to figure out what I was going to do. I was afraid to tell my relatives because I was afraid of them and what they would do to me. My family all wanted me to have an abortion, except my Mom. They all told me that I was stupid, that I couldn't raise a kid at 13 and even though I knew they were right, I wanted to try. When I told the father of my baby, he said that no way did he want to raise a kid, as he was only 14. He told his friends and they convinced him it probably wasn't even his baby. After a very difficult pregnancy and delivery I delivered a healthy seven pound baby girl. People are trying to convince me to give my baby up for adoption, but I don't want to. When you ask me why, I think it is because I just want someone else that will love me when no body else does. My baby will love me unconditionally. I am trying to stay in school, but it is very hard. I want to get an education so I can support my family.

Editor's Note: This girl ended relinquishing her baby to adoption when her baby was 7 months old. Babies don't love unconditionally and this was a very tough lesson to learn.

I found out I was pregnant when I was four months along. My mom was with me, she is the one who told my dad, because I was to scared. My aunt is a nurse and she did my first ultrasound. I had my second ultrasound done at Yakima Valley Radiology.

After my second ultrasound, my doctor told me that my baby would be born with Spinalbifida. I was so scared I didn't know what was going to happen. I had to schedule a C-section, because I could not have a natural birth. If I was to have a natural birth the spinalbifida could have gotten worse.

They set the date for my C-section for March 6, 1997. My original due date was for March 30, 1997. I had the C-section so early that way I wouldn't go into labor.

After I found out about Spinalbifida my pregnancy was hard. I got back problems and I got dehydrated. From being dehydrated I got a kidney problem and had to be hospitalized. When I was in the hospital I started to have labor pains but they stopped. My pregnancy went well from then on.

My doctor told me that I had to have my baby in Seattle at the University of Washington and that my baby would then be rushed to the Children's Hospital.

I meet all the doctors that would be helping me through my C-section in February. Then I had a amniocentesis a week before I had my baby to ensure that his lungs were developed and they were.

On March 5 I went down to Seattle. I wasn't able to eat for 24 hours before surgery. The next day I waited 4 hours before I went in to have my baby. I had a spinal block done to numb me. I had him at 4:11 p.m. I got to see him once and only got to touch his head before they took him to the Children's Hospital. It was two days before I got to see him and not getting to see him was the hardest part of my delivery.

They did his surgery and it went very well. He is now one and is able to move everywhere and get into everything. I'm so happy that my son is okay. I love my son with all of my heart and soul.

I first found out I was pregnant when I was eight days late for my period. I didn't believe that I was pregnant because I would sometimes be late. I went in to have my yearly exam done. When the doctor was examine me she said that my cervix was enlarged so she wanted me to take a pregnancy test and I did. The test came back negative so she drew blood from my arm for a pregnancy test and it came back positive and that is when I got my first appointment with my doctor. I was one month along when I found out.

Everything went very well until I was about 5 months along. I started having really bad pains, they went from the middle of my stomach to my back. After a while I couldn't handle the pain so I went up to the hospital. The doctors up there told me it was just indigestion. The pain got worse and worse where I would have to get sick, that way there was nothing in my stomach. I did this for the last 2 to 3 months of my pregnancy.

On Monday, March 25 at 3:30 am I went into labor. Around 8 am my mom called and I told her what was going on and she rushed home. Around 11 p.m. that night I went up to providence hospital, because my back was hurting and it was getting worse. They told me I wasn't in lobar because they couldn't see my contractions on the monitor and I wasn't dilating. Tuesday morning I went into see Dr. Hefliek because my doctor was out of town. He told me that I was one centimeter and by tonight I would be at least two centimeters and the hospital would have to keep me. That night around nine I went up to the hospital and I was at two centimeters and they told me I had to walk around for a couple of hours. As I was walking each contraction got worse and my back pain got worse after a while I had stop and have someone rub my back until the contraction was gone. Around 11 p.m. they put me in a room and from then on all I could do was eat popicles and move because no position would take away my back pain and even when I was having a contraction my back still hurt. I sleep for two hours that night because they gave me some pills so I would sleep and when I woke up I was leaking and that is when my water started to break. I was four centimeters. About two hours later I was five centimeters and I asked for some pain medicine and the nurse said that she could give me any. Right about noon on Wednesday I started to have to push and the doctors told me I couldn't because I was only 8 centimeters. They lost the baby's heart beat right about then and they had to put the little cord monitor for the baby's heart beat on its head. When I started to push it was about 12:30 p.m. and I was so tired that I wasn't able to push so they stuck the suction cup on its head to help me push but when I started to push the suction cup was not hooked up so I ripped from the inside out. I screamed when this happened and the next push the whole baby can out and he turned out to be a BOY!. I had an 8 pound baby boy two weeks early and ended up with 369 stitches.

After having my son, the pain in my stomach and back got even worse and I was at the hospital almost every night because I couldn't handle the pain. The pain was caused from gallstones. My gallbladder was not able digest the food at a normal rate because I carried my son very high, which squished my gallbladder so it couldn't operate normally. This is common in teenagers who are pregnant at a young age. I ended up having my gallbladder out because my gallstones were to big for my body to pass.

I was late for my period which made me happy. I was planning my pregnancy and when I went to my Doctor's office I had a pregnancy test done. The test came back negative but they told me I could be pregnant. I started having morning sickness and that is when I was sure I was pregnant. I didn't tell my husband because I was not sure. I told my sister what was going on with me and she said that I should talk to my mom. I didn't talk to my mom because I was embarrassed and scared plus she always has told me she wanted to see me graduate from high school and then have babies. I finally told my husband and he was excited because he was going to be a DAD! When I told my mom she started to cry because she said I was too small to be a mom and that she didn't want me to go through the pain of having a baby. My pregnancy went very well except for the morning sickness. My labor was pretty easy too. I'm glad that my husband was with me because he helped me a lot. 

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Belinda Buehler
Home and Family Life
Stanton Alternative School
Yakima School District