The Doctors: Do Teen Pregnancy Campaigns Work?
Around 330,000 teen mothers gave birth in 2012 and New York is one of the top 20 states producing the most teen mothers. In an effort to bring down the rate of teen pregnancy in New York City, Mayor Bloomburg has started an ad campaign he hopes will bring down the rate of teen pregnancy in NYC even more.
But the campaign has been getting mixed reviews all across the board, from parents to teens to healthcare professionals. One of the ads reads, “Dad, You’ll be paying to support me for the next 20 years,” while another reads, “Mom, I’m twice as likely not to graduate because you had me as a teen.”
“I do not agree with the ad campaign because I think they shame the mother and they shame the baby,” Dr. Lisa Masterson said. “What I’ve seen with teen girls in my practice is that if they feel good about themselves, if they have a positive self-image, then they’re really less likely to get pregnant and acquire STDs.”
The Drs: Teens Weigh In On NYC Ad Campaign
Dr. Travis Stork agreed that the ad campaign does come off with some negative connotations, but would it really stop a teen from getting pregnant?
Zoe, 15, told The Doctors she thinks the campaign could work. She said the only thing they learned about pregnancy last year in school was that it is wrong to have intercourse with someone and then they taught her how to put on a condom.
Morgan disagreed with her though. This 15-year-old said the ad campaign is not going to be as effective as some shows like Teen Mom which depict what life can really be like when you have a child in your teens.
The Doctors: Daycare Center Gives Sleeping Aid To Children
For any teen thinking about becoming a mother, they should read the following story about a woman working at a daycare center who was arrested after it was found out she was giving adult sleeping aid pills to children.
The Doctors looked at the controversial New York City ad campaign that is trying to stop teen pregnancy and they went over the dangers of diphenhydramine.
Police in the town of Morgan Hill, California said they are looking into the matter further to try and find out if only one or all of the daycare employees were giving sleeping pills to children.
Dr. Travis Stork and Dr. Jim Sears were both appalled by this story. They both said there are some serious side effects that can occur from taking the active ingredient in most sleeping aid pills, diphenhydramine. One of the most common side effects of diphenhydramine is drowsiness which may be the reason the daycare employee was giving the children the pills. But they pointed out a new study from Johns Hopkins University has found that antihistamines with diphenhydramine do not cause drowsiness in small children. It actually makes them confused and wide awake.
The Drs: Dangers Of Diphenhydramine
The Doctors said mothers are always asking if they can give their children an antihistamine for a long flight to help them sleep but they also advise against it. Dr. Sears said kids under the age of two have been reported as having seizures, heart rhythm problems and even dying after taking the drug.
Dr. Stork gave the following advice to everyone:
“Familiarize yourself with those ingredients because the same ingredients are used over and over again in all the various brands out there,” he said. “You want to make sure that the medicine you’re taking or that you’re giving your child is not only safe, but that it’s effective and that, as the creed is in medicine, it’s doing no harm.”
Leave a Reply