Teen Pregnancy in Suffolk is a Growing Problem

Though Kelly rarely comes in contact with the pregnant teens that are involved with her employer, she does advise teen girls to think twice before they become a mom. Life as a teenage mother is not an easy one.

“Being a teen mother is very hard,” she explains. “You can no longer do the things you want to do, and you have to put your dreams on hold. Most of my friends don’t talk to me anymore. I only have one friend who has stuck with me through all this.”

Dating is a complicated matter, Kelly says. Many guys don’t want to date her because she has a son but at the same time she doesn’t want to answer to a boyfriend, she explains.

“It gets lonely,” she says. As her friends have started getting married and settling down, “I do begin to feel like I’ll never find someone,” she laments.

Kelly has maintained a friendship with the baby’s father, however. She and Damion often spend weekends at his mother’s house, where the tike plays with his half-brother—born to his father and current girlfriend.

HIGH HOPES

Suffolk lawmakers and those on the ground dealing directly with Suffolk’s pregnant teenagers, such as Spector, harbor high hopes for the new Teen Pregnancy Task Force. Introduced by county legislators Viloria-Fisher and Ricardo Montano (D-Central Islip), the bill creating the unit was approved by Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy on Oct. 28. It will consist of 10 members appointed by various officials from the health, human, labor and social services fields, including a chairperson, who will be selected by a majority of the Task Force.

“My hope is that there will be a push for school to do more comprehensive sexual education,” says Suzanne Witzenburg, director of education and training for Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic serving Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Suffolk Counties. “I think it can be done and I hope that Suffolk County will be in the forefront in opening up a dialogue,” says Witzenburg, who was recently named to Suffolk’s task force.

According to Suhr, the group could have its first meeting by the end of this month, but definitely by early February at the latest. It will meet regularly, hold at least three public meetings, analyze and collect data about many different aspects of the issue, develop a strategy and issue recommendations of how to best address and reverse the taxing issue, which, Suhr stresses, affects all Suffolk County residents, regardless of race, income or zip code.

“It goes across all kinds of boundaries, wether it’s ethnic or economic or whatever,” she explains. “The worst of the situation is in the poorer areas, but it certainly is an issue in every area.”

“You see the loss of potential and what these young woman could be and could do, and they are held back, because the glamorous life is gone the day that baby’s born,” she continues. “The love for the baby is there and it gets very hard to love the baby when you’re so worried about, ‘How am I going to survive?’”

Spector, who spoke at the Oct. 13 meeting in favor of the Task Force, is optimistic about the promise and opportunity such a Task Force brings to helping “some very vulnerable communities” turn the tide.

“While we work very hard and have a pretty good success rate with the individual young people we work with, the reality is that teen pregnancy is a very complex social issue and really require systems change at county level and a community level, and we really look forward to working with a Task Force that would [help] us create that community change,” she said.

At the same meeting, Deanna Marshall, director of the Suffolk County Women’s Advisory Commission, stressed the burden teenage pregnancies put on not only the inexperienced mothers themselves, but their entire families.

“At a time when teens themselves should be maturing physically and emotionally, we’re finding that their growth is being stunted, especially financially, and their education,” she said. “They are having much difficulty in sustaining these young families that they’re bringing into not just the county, but here nationally, and, in addition to that, grandparents. When they should be preparing for their retirement, they’re being tasked with taking care of not only their children, but now raising their children’s children.”

Stemming the growing problem could also mean the difference between life and death. Teen pregnancies increase the risk of health complications for both the mother and the child, according to the CDC. Teen mothers face higher rates of preterm birth, and their infants have higher rates of low birth weight, and infant death. Other serious health risks include hypertension in the mother and premature and low birth weight for the child, which raises the risk of the child developing blindness and mental retardation, among other health problems. Children born to teens are also at an increased risk of growing up in poverty and being abused,

“It is essential that Suffolk County address this trend to ensure that teen pregnancy rates decline to protect the health and welfare of our current and future County residents,” declares the resolution creating Suffolk’s Task Force.

Kelly couldn’t agree more. “Being on Social Services is good, but there is also a bad side to it,” she says. “It is very hard to save money and get off Social Service. They only give you enough money and food stamps to just barely get by.” She plans to attend a local career institute in the spring and become a medical assistant.

Kelly stares off into space. “If you don’t have people to help you out when you have a baby then you’re going to be in trouble. You definitely need a support system when you have a child.”

She pauses before continuing: “I don’t regret my child, but if I could go back in time I would have waited until I went to school or got my GED so that I could be a better provider for him… Since I had my son, life’s been going a lot quicker.”