Every day on the obstetrics unit, we see girls and women having babies without the ability to pay for their care or the care of their children. Many of them rely on support from the government through our tax dollars. These reproducing females are not considering whether they can afford to have children, cloth them, feed them, provide insurance for their healthcare needs, educate them and provide an opportunity for them to exit the cycle. This cycle is frequently single parenthood, occasional graduation from high school and rare college education.
These girls are not taking the responsibility not to have children. Some say they have tried to use birth control, others don't believe in it and some feel that they have the right to have as many children as they desire, even when they do not have jobs or a supportive husband. They state that we (the working population) owe them. I have yet to figure out why we owe this to them or what we owe them.
As I age, I look back on my thoughts of having children in my late 30's, I see being responsible for not getting pregnant when I was incapable of providing totally for a child. I had paid off all of my debts, moved to an area that was conducive to raise children and had a good job with benefits and the ability to take off if necesssary for a sick child. Unfortunately, as I tried to get pregnant at this age, I was unsuccessful and so realized that maybe it just wasn't meant to be. I did not feel that I should have just gotten pregnant sooner when I was not prepared to care for a child even though I was employed fulltime as a nurse.
So I will continue to try to educate this population and encourage them to prevent pregnancies until they are financially stable, have a job with an opportunity to advance and have benefits such as maternity leave and have a man that will help support them and their children. I encourage them to continue with their schooling online if they cannot go to a traditional school and imagine a different life for themselves and their children. At this point they already have one child; my hope is to not see them back in a year with another one and the same situation.
