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Hi! My name is Rachel and I help Becky here with the website. Email me anytime at Rachel@StandUpGirl.com. I hope this information helps.
Check out MarchOfDimes.com, they have a lot of information about marijuana use during pregnancy there.
Also, go to http://www.optionline.org to locate a free pregnancy center near you, where they could set you up with a healthcare provider to help you find ways to quit. Good Luck!
Question: Is it safe to smoke marijuana during pregnancy?
Answer: No. Smoking marijuana during pregnancy may affect your baby’s growth and nervous system. Studies have shown that children who were exposed to marijuana during pregnancy sometimes have problems focusing their attention and difficulty in problem-solving. Children of heavy pot users may have disturbances in their short-term memory, concentration, and judgment. (There’s no evidence so far, however, that marijuana use during pregnancy causes attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).
What’s more, there’s no way to know if the pot you’re smoking has been laced with other drugs (such as PCP) or contaminated with pesticides, which puts your baby at even higher risk. And using marijuana increases the risk that your baby will have birth defects if you’re also drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes.
If you smoked pot before you realized you were pregnant, don’t panic. The chance that your baby has been affected is very small. Still, it’s important to be honest with your practitioner about your previous use of pot and other recreational drugs. She may want to run some extra tests to be sure your baby is developing normally.
What you need to know:
Pot and pregnancy don’t mix. Marijuana use can reduce fertility in both men and women, making it difficult to conceive. If you are pregnant, you need to know that marijuana crosses the placenta and can affect your baby. Marijuana use during pregnancy has been linked to low birthweight in the baby and withdrawal-like symptoms including excessive crying, and tremors (shaking). Some studies suggest that children exposed to marijuana while in the womb are at increased risk of attention disorders and learning problems later in life.What you can do:
Stay away from marijuana before and during pregnancy. If you are already pregnant, there is no evidence that marijuana smoking in the past will harm your baby. You can try some of the suggestions for quitting smoking tobacco to help you stop smoking marijuana. If you can’t give up your habit by yourself, ask your health care provider for assistance.Hi Tara!
My name is Rachel and I help Becky out some here on the website. 🙂
I am 19 now, but I had my daughter when I was 16. Me and my boyfriend dated for a long time before I got pregnant, and I thought I loved him but I wasn’t sure if he was the one I was supposed to marry. I cared a lot about him, and I wanted the best for him but I felt like it was the right thing for me to marry him. I thought that if I didn’t marry him, then my situation as a young single mom would be worse. I was raised in a strict Christian home and I thought that being 16 and pregnant was bad enough, but I thought that being in that situation and being unmarried would be looked down upon so much more.
Today I still live with my mom and my daughter is three. I’m in college, and I work too to provide what I can for my daughter. I didn’t get married to her father then and I can tell you now, that was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Two wrongs don’t make a right. I would be completely miserable if I married him, and it would have ended up in divorce. It would have been way more stress and even more of an emotional rollercoaster than it already was.
Think about it and make the right decision, and don’t base your decisions on what you think other people want you to do or what your boyfriend wants, or what you think your parents want. Think about how your relationship would be in a marriage with him. Think about how that would affect your baby. You can always get married later, but getting pregnant and having a baby does not mean you have to get married to the guy.
You can email me anytime if you want to talk. I’d love to hear from you!
Love,
RachelHey!
My name is Rachel and I help Becky with the website. I am 19 years old and I have a 2 year old daughter, and I know just how it feels to be a scared and pregnant teenager. You feel like everything you’ve ever known and dreamed of has been taken away and you feel almost desperate to just make it all disappear. If I said that I never considered abortion I would be wrong. I always thought I was against it, but I really didn’t realize what it was all about until I became a mother and stood up for both of us.
I encourage you SO much to NOT go through with the abortion. Stand Up for your unborn child! Stand Up for yourself and recognize that there’s probably a reason you’re having doubts… is this really a decision you can live with for the rest of your life?
I won’t ever tell people that being a young single mom is easy, because it’s sure not. I work, go to college full time, and have a daughter. I have four living grandparents and two of them disowned me and won’t speak to me, and I’ve gotten more than a few lectures and dirty looks. But, in her two and a half years, there hasn’t been a day yet that I’ve regretted my decisions for her. None of that has ever come close to measuring up to the joy that she brings me every day.If you read this, I would love to talk to you more, email me anytime, for anything at Rachel@StandUpGirl.com
Love,
RachelHi Kelsi!
My name is Rachel and I help Becky on the website, working on the forums.
In your question, you asked if the penis goes close to the vagina without having sex, can you get pregnant. Well, this depends. Guys not only have actual ejaculation with sperm that causes pregnancy, but they also have "pre-ejaculate" fluid. This isn’t sperm, but it’s a small amount of clear liquid that comes from the penis once a guy is aroused. This fluid does sometimes contains live sperm. It can be different every time, but there isn’t any way to know at the time whether that fluid contains sperm or not, but there is a chance of it containing sperm.
And, if a guy ejaculates somewhere on your body without it entering your vagina, there is a chance of pregnancy depending on where it goes. Sperm have tails, so they are somewhat mobile. Now, it’s not going to swim up your arm or anything! But, just know that sperm are designed to be mobile!
I’m 19 years old, and I’m the mother to a 2 year old little girl. I had her when I was sixteen, and while she’s the center of my world, there are a lot of things I’ve missed out on because I got pregnant so young. I got pregnant with my boyfriend wearing a condom. Condoms have 15% failure rate, making them only 85% effective on average. And if you don’t use one and try the "withdrawl" method, somewhat like you’ve described, there is not a high rate of effectiveness either! So abstinence is your only bet of 100% effectiveness against pregnancy.
I’d love to talk to you more, if you have any more questions or anything! You can email me at Rachel@StandUpGirl.com or respond here. 🙂
Love,
RachelHi MJ! My name is Rachel and I’m 19 too, I have a two year old daughter named Emily. I work on the forums here. 🙂
If you already have two children, then you know how amazing the gift of life is and you know how different and unique their little personalities are, and how much pure joy they can bring. If you really aren’t financially capable of raising another child, please look into the option of adoption. There are some really good links here, under "Girl Help", and I’d strongly suggest emailing Julie, a friend of mine who works on the forums with me, she’s an expert on adoption stuff! Julie@StandUpGirl.comHey HG!
I would definatley call your state’s office of Child Support Enforcement- they may even have a website. They enforce parents who try to get out of paying their child support mostly, but they are also a good source of information about Child Support Laws in your state. I’m sure they would have someone there who would be helpful to you. Look them up in your phonebook, and if you can’t find it, call your state’s department of Human Services and ask about it. Good Luck!
