Teen Pregnancy - Lisa's Story

Lisa, a lovely darkhaired senior, knew whe wanted to go to college and have a career. Could she cope with motherhood at the age of 17 and still carry through with her won plans? She decided to talk to a counselor at Children's Home Society, a large adoption agency. Here is her story:

At first I almost didn't call Pat(the agency caseworker) becaouse I thought someone from an adoption agency would want to talk to me just for my kid -- that she would try to con me into giving up my baby and signing the paper as fast as possible. I'd even heard adoption agencies reffered to as baby-stealers! But she wasn't like that at all...

Pat never tried to talk me into adoption -- she just wanted to help me find out what would be best for me. You see, I tried to ignore my pregnancy for at least six months. I didn't believe it at first -- I kept going to school and ignoring the whole thing. By four months I had to admit this had happened, but i told only two friends in the next couple of months. I kept wearing my coat to school so no one else would know. I was pretty miserable.

Finally my parents found out. They were really understanding -- I had thought they would kill me, but instead my mother simply said, "Well, we'll have to take you to the doctor tomorrow."

At first my mother assumed I was going to keep the baby. But when I started talking to Pat, Mom apparently thought it would be better for me to give it up. She didn't say so, but I could tell by the things she said like,"What are you going to do?" and "How will you suppport it?" I was about a semester away from high school graduation and I planned to go on to college.

I talked to Pat five or six times during those last two months. Sometimes we would talk for two or three hours about all the kinds of things. Of course we talked about adoption and what I could do without a kid. I remember once I said I didn't think hardly anyone who is really young could make it with a baby. Pat told me that was not so -- that for some people it's better to keep the baby, and for others, to give it up. She told me about different couples ready to adopt a child, couples she thought might be right for my baby if I decided on adoption.

I especially remember on couple -- the man was president of his company and the mother stayed home. They had a big house and several horses. That would have been nice for Stevie. Of course I know loce is the most important thing, but I would have like him to have money too.

When I was considering adoption, I worried taht when he learned he was adopted, he might hate me for giving him up. It would be nice if, when you give your baby up for adoption, you could know that when he is 18, you could see him and explain to him yourself why you did it.

I had only on freind who thought I should release my baby. All the rest were against it. They would say, "Oh God, how could you?" and "Don't even say that, how could you think of giving it away?" People in our class at school would talk about another girl who was giving up her baby. They said, "How can she do that after going through all that pain?" I told some of them it takes more love to give a baby up than it does to keep it.

A lot of girls don't consider adoption because they worry about what other people think, I thought about that too. I didn think about adoption, but never was sure what I wanted to do. Then when he was born, my mother brought me flowers. My friends came to see me and the baby. It would have been terribly hard to face them if I had decided to release him. It must be awful at that point for girls who do.

But I kept him and I'm glad I did. My mother helps me a lot, and my parents are willing to let me stay here while I go to school. I want to be a dental hygienist. They make pretty good money -- that's one of the things I like about it. But you can also pick your own hours. When I do get a job, I'll be able to be home when Stevie comes home from school. I'd like that because I could be here and watch him grow.