https://www.professorshouse.com/mom-i-want-to-go-on-the-pill/ Tue, 07 Jan 2020 09:08:24 +0000 hourly 1 https://www.professorshouse.com/mom-i-want-to-go-on-the-pill/#comment-34982 Tue, 07 Jan 2020 09:08:24 +0000 http://professorshouse.com/relationship-category/mom-i-want-to-go-on-the-pill/#comment-34982 Another thing to remember is that health care professionals are required to provide children with not only information about sex but also medication to prevent (and end) a pregnancy if requested WITHOUT parental consent. In some states, health care providers are required to give reproductive health info/meds/procedures to children as young as 10 years old (most states limit is 12 years of age). I am a registered nurse and work ER/Trauma/ICU. Very early in my career, I had a 14-year-old female as a patient in the ER who had come in because she had had an abortion several days before and had started having heavy vaginal bleeding along with an elevated temperature and lower abdominal pain. Her parents accompanied her but had no idea that their daughter not only had been pregnant but had undergone an elective abortion. During the initial exam, the patient told the physician and I that she had had the abortion but did not want us to tell her parents. We were legally required to keep her pregnancy and abortion confidential. This made it very difficult for us because we needed parental consent in order to take her to surgery and repair the damage but we could not tell the parents the cause of the excessive vaginal bleeding. We were finally able to persuade the girl to tell her parents the truth, they gave parental consent, and off she went to surgery. Unfortunately, the surgeon was unable to repair the damage done to the uterus from the abortion and the infection that had developed. The patient ended up having to undergo a hysterectomy. As a parent, it is important to remember that children in the US are able to seek and receive reproductive health care without your knowledge or consent. In this particular scenerio, the patient did not feel that she could discuss sex in general with her parents (they were strict Catholics). Had she been able to talk openly and honestly with them, it is possible that she could have obtained some form of birth control and avoided getting pregnant in the first place. It is possible that the girl would still have her uterus and be a mother today. This girl’s situation brought home to me how important it is for parents to not only talk to their kids about sex but to start talking to them about sex EARLY. Because of that patient, my husband and I spoke very openly and honestly about sex with our own children. When they began to ask questions about sex, we gave them age-appropriate answers. Any of our kids (including the boys) could have taught their 9-year-old female classmates about menstrual cycles better than the teachers. Our children are now adults and they all tell us that our openness about sexuality is the reason they never had to deal with an unexpected pregnancy or STI/STD.

]]> https://www.professorshouse.com/mom-i-want-to-go-on-the-pill/#comment-19850 Mon, 31 Oct 2016 20:55:02 +0000 http://professorshouse.com/relationship-category/mom-i-want-to-go-on-the-pill/#comment-19850 If a girl is not mature enough to take care of getting her birth control , she is not mature enough to be having sex. Both my daughters obtained a prescription for the pill on their own, and I admire them for it, and ,of course, was also relieved that they are protected. It is so much easier now, than before the pill was invented and ,believe it or not, birth control was illegal in my state, MA. I think just as many kids were having sex in t he ’50’s,or almost as many, but the fear of pregnancy and our parents wrath, made us be very careful!

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