society has come along way concerning pregnancy

No I dont think it was always like this. The world is a LOT more accepting now and that makes kids less cautious. Me for example. I have 3 kids and I am not married. I was 19 when I got pregnant with my first child. Her father and I got married shortly after she was born, but it didn't last (abusive). If we were living in the old days there is no way I would have let it happen, but I didn't care if I got pregnant because I knew I would be accepted. Now I am with a different guy and we have 2 kids and we still haven't got married. We are planning to this summer, but I really wish I would of done it the right way this time. I do not want to get divorced again and that's my reasoning for not doing it yet, but in my opinion its not the right way. Well also the fact that he didn't even ask me until last year, but then we shouldn't have had kids. If I could do it all again I would. All I can do is hope my children don't make the same mistakes.

While I don't think it's great to have a child when you are still in school, I also don't think it's a horrible thing either. I had my son at 16 (19 years ago), there were many challenges but life is about rising to meet your challenges. Women (younger or older) who don't know who the father of their child is something I can see both sides of. On the one hand, I would want my daughter to choose her partners carefully, to not be intimate with any guy she may date- on the other, especially with women in their teens (but could apply to any woman) sometimes their cycles are very erratic. I can see how reasonably something like this could happen- suppose you have an intimate relationship that last for many months, and you break up oh in January- you begin dating someone else pretty quickly and the end of February you realize you've missed at least one period- who's is it? Depending on what you get for prenatal care, and how your pregnancy goes it can be very difficult to pinpoint conception based on due date or birthdate. Suppose the woman in this example gives birth 3 weeks early (according to her 'due date') but the baby weighs a nice robust 7+lbs- was she really early or did she conceive earlier than she thought? I think it would be an awful position to find yourself in, but I can see how it could happen.If my partner & I broke up today, I'd be dating again within a month if just to keep my mind off my break-up. The young women who bring a half a dozen potential fathers on talk shows to have DNA tests done, well that's a different matter entirely. I hope those circumstances are rare, and I think the young woman in that position often has some serious problems going on. Why aren't her parents aware that she's "dating" a dozen young men? How does she have the time to sleep with a dozen men, isn't she in school? Why is her self-esteem so low that she seems to think she needs to sleep with every boy she meets to perhaps prove her self-worth? And if she's under say 14 and these young men are over 17- why aren't we wondering how much pressure these men put on her, and perhaps filing statutory charges against them?

oh boy i didn't relize you could get that sort of test at the store. i'm not to sure about that but ok. i was 19 when i got pregnet for my first son and i had people looking at me funny so i couldn't imagin being any younger and pregnet. i think that it has to do with parents and them not caring for their kids the way the should. parents now a days just don't seem to care like our mothers did. its like their afraid and i am not sure why. i see show where these little girls are trying to get pregnet so they can have a baby to love them, so somewhere they're not getting the love they need. i so think it happened back when but it wasn't like it is now. i am not sure how a 13 year can get pregnet and people think its ok that is normally. parents need to open their eyes and take care of their kids,if these kids really felt loved and cared for then i don't think it would be that big of a problem. maybe its just me but i knew how much my mother loved me and how much it woudl of hurt her to go out and get pregnet that young.

I laugh when I go through family history and see that a lot of old family members had 10 pound "premies" 7 or 8 months after they got married. Lots of shotgun weddings! Divorce wasn't as acceptable either, so I wonder if they were truly happy in their marriage and felt pressured to get married just cause of a baby. So I think in that aspect it is a good thing that society accepts more unwed mothers. I think parents need to discuss birth control with their teenagers, abstinence only education doesn't always work. I know when I was in highschool, girls got pregnant because they thought if the guy pulled out they would be safe. My mother was very open with us and told us how stupid that is.

I think that so many have the attitude it is my life I can do what I want and no one is going to tell me anything. I mean the parents have this attitude and so the kids that kind of attitude toward people and guess what the parents defend them. A lot of parents will say yeah I know she is young but it is my daughter and I will do whatever I want with her. I can raise my daughter my own way so the kids see their parents acting this way and assume that is the way they are supposed to be. It is very very sad but that is how it is. Plus I think there is a lot of girls that had girls young thinking I can do whatever and me and so and so and in love and then next thing you know the guy is gone and she is all by herself raising a baby. Dropping out of school, working just to take care of the baby. Having to work so much and not even being able to pay attention to the child that they are supposed to be raising. So many parents now days leave it up to the schools to raise their kids and it should be the parents job the teachers are just there to teach them and give them an education on history, math, science and english not to give them morals on what is right and wrong, and what is acceptable and what isn't.

Minelli's "Home from the hill" is from 1960: you can see how things have changed in (not yet) 50 years.

I don't want it for my kids. I can only hope they don't follow in my foot steps. I'm glad that if it DOES happen they can still live a semi-normal life though.

I think parents and our society has become open minded about we cannot change or alter. Of course, there is abortion or having the child adopted by other people but since the question accepting the fact that these mothers are only 14 and they don't even know who fathered their child, I think we could trace the reason for the upbringing of the mother. The home should serve as the school of values of these children. I must admit that I feel bad that these had happened in our province here in the Philippines. Since it can't be undone, our community just accpeted the fact as it is. These kids, together with the family are so ashamed but they have to bear the consequences of what their kids have done. We can say that they are somewhat misguided but still, the kids are to be blamed for their actions and must face the shame they had caused to themselves and to their family. I am not aware of the dna test kit. if it is really available, then its a good thing but aren't you talking about pregnancy test kit instead?