Teen Pregnancy: A Day-in-the-Life

June 23, 2009— -- Stephanie has a harder, longer day than most high school seniors. While they're hitting the snooze button, 17-year-old Stephanie is already in a mad dash to get two people out the door: herself, and her 10-month-old daughter Melanie.

It's not a life she ever imagined for herself, but it's reality for the nearly 500,000 American girls who become mothers each year.

For Stephanie, motherhood came when she was just 15 and a sophomore in high school. A popular cheerleader, she was the proverbial last person anyone thought would get pregnant.

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The news surprised everyone -- especially her. "Throwing up was the first sign. I really thought I had the stomach flu. But eventually it was becoming clear that I didn't have the stomach flu. And when I did find out I was in denial."

Stephanie was in such denial that it took three or four pregnancy tests before she accepted the terrifying reality. Scared as she was about her future, Stephanie was even more worried about how her conservative Catholic mother, Milagros, would react.

"The day I told my mom was very stressful and heartbreaking because I know she wants the best for me. And I knew she was going to be disappointed in me," she recalls. After all, Stephanie had gone to church every Sunday and dutifully listened to her mother's lectures about the "birds and the bees."And she did use birth control -- at least most of the time. "It's not something I remembered taking daily," she admitted.

At first, Milagros was furious. "After the tears came anger and she told me to leave the house," said Stephanie, who stayed with her older sister for a week and a half.

Milagros eventually calmed down and allowed Stephanie to return home, under one condition: she had to do her own chores. The tasks would be a homework assignment in preparation for her new life as a mother.

"I'm going to have to learn how to be independent because eventually I'm gonna have to learn how to do everything for my child," explained Stephanie.

The training proved to be necessary, since Melanie's father has left most of the parenting to Stephanie.