“After A Child Has Fallen Into A Well And
Drowned, Then The Well Gets Covered”
Covering a well after and not before is a
very common saying in the Mexican culture.
As incredible as it sounds, this approach or view is exactly how the
majority of Latino teenagers feel after they become pregnant. A recent study,
made by an undergraduate student at The Women’s College at The University of
Denver, showed that when mothers do not talk to their daughters about sex and
birth control before their daughters are sexually active, these Latino
teenagers are more likely to get pregnant.
The study showed that the lack of access to information about sex and
birth control and their own natural inclination toward privacy, keeps parents from
having this conversation with their daughters.
The author of the study reported the results of the interviews conducted
with fifteen students at a high school in the Denver area. This particular high
school has a large population of teenage mothers, especially Latinas.
One of the respondents was “Angelica” a
21-year-old woman who became pregnant when she was only 16 and like many other
teenage mothers dropped out of high school.
Angelica stated that her mother didn’t talk to her about sex or birth
control before she got pregnant, but after her baby was born her mother started
talking to her about sex and birth control more freely and consistently. “They never talked to me about it. My parents didn’t grow up like that, they
thought that I would learn about it on my own.” Says Angelica. If that wasn’t shocking enough, there is
something else that Angelica worries about.
Angelica has two younger sisters 16 and 17, and her mom avoids the
conversation at all times “… I try to explain to my mom that she needs to talk
to them, but she does not listen… I don’t understand why my mom tells me to
stay on birth control only because she doesn’t want to have another grandchild,
but she will not try to prevent an unplanned pregnancy from my sisters just
because she is not sure they are sexually active.”
According
to a 2010 report by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned
Pregnancy, there are more Latina teen pregnancies in the state of Colorado than
any other ethnic group, 48%. Society needs
to take action. People need to have more
access to accurate information about sex and birth control and Latino parents need to
understand that there is more they can do to help decrease the statistics. It would be much better “if the well gets covered before the child falls and drowns” and so their young daughters would be able to have a
better future without becoming pregnant in their teenage years.
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