Youngest labor patient?

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

What is the youngest age patient you have taken care of or has b een on your L&D unit?

I was floored the other week when we had a 12 year old in labor. Yes, 12 years old. Merely a baby herself, having a baby. That was the same day I was caring for a laboring 14 year old who was having her first baby (a 33 week demise at that).

:crying2: So very very sad.

Specializes in Women's health & post-partum.

This wasn't a patient of mine--the girl was an old playmate of mine when we were both kids. Maggie wanted to get married the worst way, and did, on or about her 15th birthday. By the time we were 21, I was in college, still deciding what I was going to do with my life, and Maggie had had 5 kids, 2 miscarriages and a hysterectomy!

The youngest I've seen in the hospital was 14.

However, I used to work at a maternity home and our youngest was 12. In 2000, a town in Oklahoma with a population of ~40,000 had a total of 7 pregnancies in the 6th Grade Center.

Keep in mind that this in Oklahoma, with puportedly the highest pregnancy rate in the nation.

I really hate to think what happens in the rural areas at the outlying community hospitals. I bet they see a few kids.

Oh my goodness!!

12 years old??!! You know what makes me sad? (and this may not be RIGHT for me to feel this way...but..) These 10, 11, 12, 13 year old girls are having these nice big healthy babies, and here my husband and i are, both of us 23 been married for 3 years and we were "blessed" with a daughter who has Cerbral palsy along with MANY other complications and diagnoses. I do know that we were given her by God for a reason, but it still gets me angry to think about!! :angryfire

Katie

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
The youngest I've seen in the hospital was 14.

However, I used to work at a maternity home and our youngest was 12. In 2000, a town in Oklahoma with a population of ~40,000 had a total of 7 pregnancies in the 6th Grade Center.

Keep in mind that this in Oklahoma, with puportedly the highest pregnancy rate in the nation.

I really hate to think what happens in the rural areas at the outlying community hospitals. I bet they see a few kids.

I can tell you that is true. I was a rural nurse in Oklahoma some years back. Town of less the 25,000 and serving LOTS of really small rural towns around us. Yes, What you say is true. The teen pregnancy rate (along with gang affiliations) was through the roof......it was really horrifying. :uhoh21:

I can tell you that is true. I was a rural nurse in Oklahoma some years back. Town of less the 25,000 and serving LOTS of really small rural towns around us. Yes, What you say is true. The teen pregnancy rate (along with gang affiliations) was through the roof......it was really horrifying. :uhoh21:

Yeah, I really don't doubt it. It's just that a lot of states claim they have the highest pregnancy rate in the nation, and I really haven't looked it up. What state would really want to win that contest? :rolleyes:

:confused:

I thought that the teen pregnancy rate has been steadily going down in each state the last decade or so?

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

In some areas, it persists, austinsmom. but yes nationwide, it appears to be going down some.

I thought that the teen pregnancy rate has been steadily going down in each state the last decade or so?

I too have heard that over all, teen preg. rates are going down. But I bet the avg. age of these teen mom's has gone down (like 12, 13, 14 years old) too.

I'm 29 years old and I can't even believe the difference in what I knew at 16, 17, 18 years of age compared to what today's 16, 17, 18 year olds know and do now. Let alone the 12 and 13 year olds. It just boggles my mind.

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
.

I'm 29 years old and I can't even believe the difference in what I knew at 16, 17, 18 years of age compared to what today's 16, 17, 18 year olds know and do now. Let alone the 12 and 13 year olds. It just boggles my mind.

It's what they THINK they know....ignorance is rampant, trust me. still they believe it can't happen standing up, the first time, if a douche is used......etc. LET ALONE the risk of STD's they court in sleeping around. They THINK they know it all, but sadly, they need REAL education. Now more than ever, to counteract what they think they learn on the street.

It's what they THINK they know....ignorance is rampant, trust me. still they believe it can't happen standing up, the first time, if a douche is used......etc. LET ALONE the risk of STD's they court in sleeping around. They THINK they know it all, but sadly, they need REAL education. Now more than ever, to counteract what they think they learn on the street.

I just feel like weeping today regarding what our teens think they know and what they are doing. This is a little graphic so those who don't want to read anything graphic, go no further.

Our local public school lost funding for a full-time school nurse and so we occasionally have a "traveling" nurse. Recently she was here to talk with the girls and discuss STD's and prevention. She was shocked at the response of quite a few girls who told her privately that they were practicing safe sex and couldn't get STD's or pregnant because they were engaged in anal sex. Well, I knew that oral sex had become all the rage in our junior high and high school as a way to combat pregnancy :rolleyes: but anal sex? The nurse quickly explained things to the girls who were surprised.

Ok, what happened to learning history, math, english, social studies, driver's ed, science, etc.? What happened to being an athlete, being in the band, singing in the choir, starring in plays, belonging to the chess club, writing for the school newspaper, serving as a student representative on the local school board, going on field trips? How do our kids find the time to engage in a sexual act that I knew nothing about until I was in college?

Yep, our kids know more but don't know more. And why are our girls putting up with this?

Breaks my heart that kids don't have a childhood anymore . . . . .Deb, I'm about to send my 14 year old daughter into high school here . ... and am so torn. She loves sports and is good at them. If I homeschool her as you do your son, the local schoolboard says she cannot play sports even if I homeschool her through the highschool program. Do I sacrifice her love of sports or do I sacrifice her to the will of boys who don't give a damn about her? I realize I can continue to teach her right from wrong and hope she will be strong enough to care more about herself than that. But it is almost like throwing her to the wolves. Girls get such negative messages about themselves. And what are the parents of boys doing to teach them to respect women?

My mind is spinning . .. .

steph

Steph, excellent posts.

I am very interested in this topic because I would like to eventually work in some capacity as a health educator for teens, specifically sex ed.

I don't know what health ed. programs are like at schools now, but I know that when I was in High School and in College, Sex Ed. never included education on the "emotional" and "psychosocial" issues related to actually having sex.

No one ever talked to us about love vs. infatuation, feelings of readiness or regret before or after sex or that boys may only view you as a conquest and dump you the next day.

Or that if you feel good about yourself and respect yourself and the other person you could make a better decision about having sex and not depend on having a boyfriend or girlfriend to feel good about yourself and popular.

I think that these are areas for discussion that are seriously lacking in sex/health education. And when we only spend perhaps a whole 3 class periods on the sheer mechanics of reproduction and do that much only once or twice in the teens whole academic career, I think that the subject matter just seems so removed from them personally.

Steph, excellent posts.

I am very interested in this topic because I would like to eventually work in some capacity as a health educator for teens, specifically sex ed.

I don't know what health ed. programs are like at schools now, but I know that when I was in High School and in College, Sex Ed. never included education on the "emotional" and "psychosocial" issues related to actually having sex.

No one ever talked to us about love vs. infatuation, feelings of readiness or regret before or after sex or that boys may only view you as a conquest and dump you the next day.

Or that if you feel good about yourself and respect yourself and the other person you could make a better decision about having sex and not depend on having a boyfriend or girlfriend to feel good about yourself and popular.

I think that these are areas for discussion that are seriously lacking in sex/health education. And when we only spend perhaps a whole 3 class periods on the sheer mechanics of reproduction and do that much only once or twice in the teens whole academic career, I think that the subject matter just seems so removed from them personally.

Amen to that! I'm interested in the same area myself.

steph

+ Add a Comment