Pregnancy and Childbirth Workshop for Incarcerated Youth

Educating Youth on Making Healthy Choices

Pregnancy and Childbirth is our group’s presentation topic which is chapter six on page 119 in Human Sexuality: A Contemporary Introduction (Pukall, 2017). This proposal is to tell a reason to which we have to serve our target demographic which is youth or young women who are currently pregnant and are experiencing some form of trauma i.e. anxiety or depression between the ages of 18 and 24 years who are in jail facing the justice system. For our workshop we will focus on stages of pregnancy, delivery options, the postpartum period, and breastfeeding. Finally, the Ontario Sexual Education Curriculum does not cover this topic nor serve this particular youth demographic, so this makes our workshop necessary. According to Friedman, Kaempf, Kauffman (2020), young mothers are often single mothers prior to incarceration, and they are often separated from their children for the first time upon entering prison. Pregnancy, delivery, lactation, and parenting each require special consideration. Outcomes of pregnancy in prison are better overall than for similarly disadvantaged young women in the community. Breastfeeding, despite being recommended by medical groups, is problematic for most who are awaiting forced separation from their infant, due to a lack of mother-baby units in most U.S. states. Mother-baby units have crucial goals, including improved family relations and decreased recidivism. They should not discriminate against mothers with treated perinatal mental illness. Many barriers for visitation of incarcerated mothers exist, including that, because there are fewer women’s prisons, there are greater distances between mothers and children. Fortier and Foster (2017) stated that in Canada, it is estimated that every year approximately 40,000 adolescent girls become pregnant; roughly 20,000 have an abortion and 20,000 give birth (Al-Sahab et al. 2012). Young mothers and their children are a vulnerable population requiring support and programmatic attention (Beers and Hollo 2009; Harrison et al. 2014, 2017). Although young mothers can provide children with a loving, stable, and nurturing environment, they often lack a healthy support system, experience high levels of stress, and miss out on important educational opportunities (Luong 2008; Al-Sahab et al. 2012; Kingston et al. 2012) because they find themselves facing the justice system. In North America, teenage motherhood is associated with a higher risk of being unemployed or underemployed, living in poverty and in an unhealthy/unsafe environment, having a large family and an unstable household, and raising children as a single parent (Singh et al. 2001; Luong 2008; Kingston et al. 2012). Overarching socio-economic dynamics can impact the health of both young mothers and their children. Young mothers are more likely to develop depression and anxiety than non-parenting teens (Al-Sahab et al. 2012; Hodgkinson et al. 2014; SmithBattle and Freed 2016; Harrison et al. 2017) and the children of teens are at greater risk for educational disabilities and mental health disorders than children born to older parents (Lipman et al. 2011; Kingston et al. 2012). Children of teenage mothers are also 25% more likely themselves to become adolescent parents, thereby contributing to a complex cycle (Harrison et al. 2017). These educational, socio-economic, and health dynamics can have a negative influence on the development of the mother–child relationship. Teenage mothers are more likely than older parents to exhibit difficulty with the task of early parenthood (Singh et al. 2001). “Rapid repeat pregnancy” is a term used to define the onset of pregnancy within 24 months of a previous pregnancy outcome. This phenomenon is common among youth; approximately 25% of young mothers will have a second child within two years of the birth of their first child (Luong 2008). Issues already present after the first childbirth often become more serious and difficult to manage after a subsequent delivery. Compared with adolescent mothers with only one child, young mothers with more than one child have lower levels of education, are more likely to live in poverty, and have increased dependence on governmental support (Rotermann 2007; Patchen et al. 2013; Gill et al. 2016). Lack of postpartum contraception (Al-Sahab et al. 2012; Kingston et al. 2012; Pinzon and Jones 2012; Wilson et al. 2013; Whitaker et al. 2016; Sober et al. 2017), experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV), and having mental health and substance abuse issues (Harrison et al. 2014; SmithBattle and Freed 2016) have been identified as key factors associated with multiple pregnancies among youth. Although some risk factors associated with multiple pregnancies among youth have been identified, there has been a lack of investigation of the experiences of young mothers who have had subsequent or “rapid repeat” pregnancies. In Ontario, the pregnancy rate for women aged 15–19 was 25.7 per 1000 in 2007 (Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care 2012) and according to the Ottawa Public Health Unit, the teen pregnancy rate decreased from 25 per 1000 teens in 2003 to 18 in 2012 (Ottawa Public Health 2014). However, no information is available about “rapid repeat” pregnancies in either Ontario or Ottawa, and little information is available about the lived experiences of young mothers in these settings. Capturing women’s stories is crucial to understanding how services can be improved and (or) expanded. Let’s be honest, going through a teen pregnancy is probably not going to be easy. However, it is definitely possible. Young women push through the trials of teen pregnancy every day. Many people say it is hard enough just being a teenager by itself – add in pregnancy and all that planning and preparing that comes with it, and it becomes even more challenging. This is the reason why we intend to approach this workshop with a strength-based and through an anti-oppressive lens and both geographically and relationally meet the youth “where they are at” by hosting the workshop at a jail where they are facing the justice system. In addition, the reason behind having the workshop open to pregnant youth, and youth who are thinking about becoming pregnant, is that we are able to reach many more individuals in the hope that they can make healthier and educated choices about their lives, their bodies, and be able to provide support for others. This workshop is intended to build on their skills, provide access to support, educate and hopefully decrease fears and anxieties around pregnancy and childbirth. This workshop allows the youth to create a network of support with each other, to rely on and share information, whereas prior they may not have had those connections. While the current Ontario Sexual Education Curriculum does briefly cover physical, social, emotional, and psychological factors to consider when making sexual health choices such as pregnancy, it does not cover the stages of pregnancy, postpartum period or delivery options (Ontario, 2018). This means that educating youth on these topics falls primarily on the medical community and caregivers, which can prove to be a barrier for young people facing trauma. This proposal focuses on making a case for presenting a workshop on Pregnancy and Childbirth to 18 and 24-year-olds who are pregnant and living with trauma. Due to a number of barriers that could pose a number of health and other threats, we argue it is imperative to initiate educational workshops in jails. REFERENCES Elyse F. and Angel M. F. (2017). “It was kind of like if it happens it happens. It wasn’t planned, it wasn’t intentional”: Young mothers’ experiences with subsequent pregnancy in Ottawa, Canada. Retrieved from: https://www.facetsjournal.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/facets-2017-0077 American Pregnancy Association. (2017). Teen pregnancy issues