jessica.kerman@heraldbulletin.com

E.J. wasn’t surprised when her pregnancy test came back positive.

“I already felt it,” she said. “My body felt confused. It didn’t feel right.”

E.J. (not the teenager’s real name) was five weeks into her pregnancy at that point, and she was in a correctional facility.

Two weeks ago, the teen at Triple L Ranch gave birth to her “quiet, beautiful little girl.” (The Department of Child Services does not allow residential treatment facilities such as Triple L Ranch to give out the names of people within the program.)

This is in marked contrast to the teen featured Sunday in The Herald Bulletin who was apparently all alone when she had a stillborn birth. With a growing number of teen pregnancies, girls need to know that they don’t have to go through it by themselves. There are many support groups, and they’re being kept busy.

According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, teen pregnancy in America is rising for the first time in 14 years. For girls between the ages of 15 and 19, live births went from 40.5 per 1,000 families in 2005 to 41.9 per 1,000 families in 2006, an increase of 3 percent.

And Indiana has a higher rate than the national averages, Courtney Boyer, sexuality educator/trainer for Planned Parenthood of Indiana. However, several agencies in Indiana and Madison County are working to cut the number of teenage pregnancies, as well as provide support and services to young women who do become pregnant.

Education and support

When E.J. found out about her pregnancy, she wasn’t even old enough to drive in Indiana.

“Hopefully, I’ll go back to school (soon),” she said.

E.J. did not cry when she realized she would have a baby. She was more scared than anything else. There is no expected reaction from a teenager who learns she is pregnant, said Carla Madden, director of Planned Parenthood Health Centers for the Northeast Region of Indiana.

“It’s a mixed reaction, whether the pregnancy is planned or unplanned,” she said. “It’s joyful in some instances. It’s very tearful in others.”

“Sometimes there’s shock,” Carol Whitesel, director of Community Hospital’s Pregnancy Plus program. “Sometimes they’re concerned and worried about if they’ll have to tell their parents. Some are happy; some want that.”