Samantha Care was not on the show “16 and pregnant,” but she was indeed 16 and pregnant. A night of drunken stupor changed Care’s life forever.
That was the night she conceived her now three-year old-daughter, Faith. It was the first time Care had tried alcohol, and she remembered having sex with her at the time boyfriend but couldn’t remember everything—but she recalled, something this time was different.
“I asked him if we used protection and he said no. I knew I was pregnant at that moment. I was scared, shocked, disappointed in myself, and excited,” Care said in an email interview.
She got pregnant at the end of her junior year, and leading into her senior year, there was no doubt about her pregnancy. Care also remembers that when her classmates learned about her pregnancy, they were less than accepting.
“People said awful things like ‘you should get and abortion,’ ‘you can’t possibly procreate.’ People tried to punch my stomach, teachers looked at me differently. It wasn’t an easy thing to go through emotionally or physically,” she said.
Care said that the only amount of sex education she had was in 5th grade and remembers in 8th grade the teachers barely covered it because they assumed all the students knew about sex. Care says she understands more about sex after she had a child than before the pregnancy.
Soon after school started, she was sent for a stress test at the hospital,which turned into having a baby. After over a day and half of labor and an epidural, the doctors told Care that it was likely that they would have to deliver the baby via a c-section. Care was determined to have her daughter naturally. She was a high-risk pregnancy because diagnosed with toxemia and preeclampsia— both conditions that stem from pregnancy, high blood pressure, and proteins in the urine during 20 weeks of pregnancy according to BabyCenter.com.
“I got pregnant, and I was going to deal with it the way it was meant to be dealt with. My epidural was turned off three hours before I gave birth to my daughter so I felt EVERYTHING,” Care said.
Care said that she loves her daughter, but does not want her to follow in her footsteps.
“I would want her to follow my achievements and step above and beyond my mistakes,” Care said. Her career goals have changed since she became a mother.
“I wanted to be in law enforcement but I didn’t go for that because I was too afraid to bring danger home to my daughter. I am currently working on getting my CNA and then I am working towards my RN,” Care said.
Care said that she does not promote or agree with shows like MTV’s “Teen Mom” because she feels that it makes it look easy to be a teenage mother, “I think they glorify being a mom at a young age,” Care said.
In response to the recent ads posted on subway platforms and buses in New York City fostering negative comments about teen pregnancy and parenthood, Care says she believes it’s a good idea because they tell the truth even if it’s a harsh reality.
“Girls wait to have children, go to school, get married, make sure a guy is the one. I don’t want to see anyone go through the pain I am going through right now,” Care said.
Up Next: Is advertising an effective way to teach about sex accurately?
