The youngest new mother's you've seen

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

We just recently had a 14 year old on our unit. I'm sure for some of you that's not uncommon, and I was warned that in our hosptial especially, it's not uncommon (I think there might have been a 13 year old one time too, some time back).

I was talking to another nurse about my age about it, and when you really think about it...I mean I brought the girl some water, she wasn't my patient, but she needed some water and I walk in her room and she was watching like...Nickelodeon or Disney or something. It just brought it home that when I was 14 I was in the last half of 8th grade for petesake! High School hadn't even started yet- "life" hadn't even started yet, I was barely a teenager- just teen enough to sport the grunge look so typical of 1994.

So what's the youngest you've seen? I realize age is just a number, of course and this young lady we had was actually pretty sober about the whole thing, good on her.

Specializes in Med/Surg,Cardiac.

When I was in sixth grade, one of my classmates delivered her child. My school covered pre-k through 12th grade, so her and her child were attending the same school eventually.

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Specializes in OB (with a history of cardiac).

Yeah when I was an LPN and worked in peds, in an inner city clinic I had a mom who was 16 bring her 12 month old in for his check up...grandma came too, with her newborn for the newborn's check up. Wow. Wowie wow wow wow.

What saddens me is that the younger moms, the single moms, the moms in poverty are the ones who look the oldest, and the most weary and are actually the lower maintenance of my patients. The ones who actually are somewhat more grateful than the suburban mothers who fancy themselves "empowered" and demand this and that, and hate everyone wearing scrubs because it's OUR fault she had to have a stat section and we didn't follow she and her husband's 4 paged detailed birth plan. But that's a different tirade entirely. One seasoned nurse merely smiled and said to me "welcome to (my hospital) birth center...you understand now...you are now one of us!"

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

One of my patients' mother is a HS Phys Ed health teacher...the sexual development talks now have to be taught in 3rd and 4th grade as menarche onset has now been reduced to 8 and 9 years old as compared to 12/13 years old from 20 years ago. Many have speculated as to why the change..

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Specializes in OB.

The youngest patient I've taken care of was a few days past her 14th birthday...but we had a twelve-year old on the unit a few months ago who had been raped by her father. It was heartbreaking.

I feel like we get an influx of 14- to 17-year olds during the month of June...it sort of makes me want to go to all the schools in our area and hand out condoms at their homecoming dances.

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13...it was sad!

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I took care of a 15 yo. It was her second child. Her sister had been in several months earlier. She was 14.

Mom's reaction? She was thrilled to have to a couple of grandbabies to fuss over. When she'd had the older girl fifteen years earlier, she wasn't ready to be a mom. But now she was physically and mentally and emotional ready to function as a parent.

I often see families where parenting skips a generation. Grandma takes care of her daughter's child. Someday, that teen (now in her early thirties) will step in and care for her daughter's child. And so it goes.

Not the best plan, but at least someone is taking care of the babies. Far worse are the girls who are on their own or who are dependent on people who don't really care about them or their children. Those are the ones I fear for.

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I work in NICU and once took care of a preemie whose mother was 14 and had an 8 month old already. Her mother was pregnant as well.

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I had my son at 16 and I am now IN nursing school. Not all teen mothers are trashy, lazy, and immature (although the spongebob thing is hilarious!). At 14 I had the maturity of some 30 year olds (I'm somewhat of an "old soul"). Lets face it almost ALL teenagers have sex. Actually I was one of the last girls that I knew to lose their virginity (at 16, yes I am aware that that is horrible but he is a sweetie and I knew that and... hey... I married him soon after and were still going strong!:loveya:) I remember that most of my nurses were snobby and judgemental while I was in the hospital and OH LORD the lactation nurse... (she obviously thought she should be over the "Who gets to have babies and who doesn't" town council!) There was however this one nurse who was SUPER nice and understanding of my situation. She asked questions and was oober non-judgemental and she is honestly what inspired me to become a nurse! My experience with my teenage pregnancy not only gave me my beautiful, healthy and perfectly fine (thank you very much) son, it made me want to go into a field where I can be that inspiration to other girls! I always knew I wanted to be a mother (maybe not THAT soon) and nonetheless God put my little Noah bear in my life for a reason. I'm a strong mother and better at it than some "accepted" mothers!

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I had my son at 16 and I am now IN nursing school. Not all teen mothers are trashy, lazy, and immature (although the spongebob thing is hilarious!). At 14 I had the maturity of some 30 year olds (I'm somewhat of an "old soul"). Lets face it almost ALL teenagers have sex. Actually I was one of the last girls that I knew to lose their virginity (at 16, yes I am aware that that is horrible but he is a sweetie and I knew that and... hey... I married him soon after and were still going strong!:loveya:) I remember that most of my nurses were snobby and judgemental while I was in the hospital and OH LORD the lactation nurse... (she obviously thought she should be over the "Who gets to have babies and who doesn't" town council!) There was however this one nurse who was SUPER nice and understanding of my situation. She asked questions and was oober non-judgemental and she is honestly what inspired me to become a nurse! My experience with my teenage pregnancy not only gave me my beautiful, healthy and perfectly fine (thank you very much) son, it made me want to go into a field where I can be that inspiration to other girls! I always knew I wanted to be a mother (maybe not THAT soon) and nonetheless God put my little Noah bear in my life for a reason. I'm a strong mother and better at it than some "accepted" mothers!

I'm in a similar situation, I'm 19 and always wanted kids, though not this soon, but I am in a stable relationship with an amazing man, we both have jobs and our own place, which is honestly better than someone the 20 and 30 somethings I know having babies! Its a blessing I got pregnant now, with my health problems and reproductive issues I might not have been physically capable of concieving and carrying a baby to term safely later in life. I do hate the idea that anyone under 25 is an unfit mother, but the nurses on this board all sound like angels, non judgemental and stuff.

The pregnant children break my heart :( I can't bring myself to judge a pregnant twelve year old. At that age he idea of consent is just...I wonder how they got to that place? Rape? I know not all young girls who get pregnant are pregnant because of rape, but at the same time I know many girls who were "willing" but the reason they were willing (and knew about sex) at such a young age were heart breaking, they were often victims of sexual, physical, or emotional abuse or neglect. Some where along the line these girls were broken, and its sad.

This thread does make me happy though: its great to see so many nurses who see things like this and help their patients through it instead of making a scared child feel worse. Thank you guys for being amazing, this is a heart breaking yet inspirational thread. I hope someday I can be like you guys!

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13. So, so sad. When I was in middle school my 12 year old classmate had a baby.....

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Specializes in RNC-MNN, L&D/Postpartum/AP/PACU, CLC.

The youngest I've seen is 14. She was just in last month. Turns out her step-father was the dad and they were having an affair. We think the mother knew, but once the teen admitted it to her PP nurse, the mom finally decided to call the police. They came up to the floor to arrest him and then the teen was screaming at her mother about ruining her life and her baby's life. Awful!

While we don't see a lot of very young mothers, we see a lot of very immature mothers with several children at a very young age. I take care of a lot of 20-23 y/o's who are 4/3 or 3/2 when they come in. I know they are low income and I wonder how they will manage, particularly when I see how some of those couples interact. It makes me sad.

FWIW, I see a lot of moms in labor watching cartoons. Sometimes I chalk it up to nothing else being on or missing the older kids who are at home while mom is in labor, but sometimes it is just that the woman is immature, no matter her age.

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The youngest I've seen is 14. She was just in last month. Turns out her step-father was the dad and they were having an affair. We think the mother knew, but once the teen admitted it to her PP nurse, the mom finally decided to call the police. They came up to the floor to arrest him and then the teen was screaming at her mother about ruining her life and her baby's life. Awful!

While we don't see a lot of very young mothers, we see a lot of very immature mothers with several children at a very young age. I take care of a lot of 20-23 y/o's who are 4/3 or 3/2 when they come in. I know they are low income and I wonder how they will manage, particularly when I see how some of those couples interact. It makes me sad.

FWIW, I see a lot of moms in labor watching cartoons. Sometimes I chalk it up to nothing else being on or missing the older kids who are at home while mom is in labor, but sometimes it is just that the woman is immature, no matter her age.

Haha I would really tickle your spidey senses then--I'm 32 and still watch cartoons!! But my husband draws comic books for a living so we're going to be children forever :)

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