Interview with Jane Doe, Teen Mother a Week After 9/11, Hist 150 spring 2024, Conducted by Rylee Key, 3/17/2024

Overview

Teen pregnancy is a common occurrence in the United States, with one out of ten women aged fifteen to nineteen becoming teen mothers every year. The consequences of teen pregnancy can be devastating, as teenage mothers are more likely to drop out of school and face mental and social problems. Furthermore, children born to teenage mothers are at a higher risk for health and developmental challenges. For instance, babies born to teen mothers are at risk for low birth rates. Despite efforts to decrease teen pregnancy rates through comprehensive sex education, access to contraception, and support programs for young parents, the United States continues to have one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy among developed countries. 

Becoming a first time mother is not easy no matter the age, but being nineteen makes it all the more difficult. Jane Doe, can personally attest to this statement. Not only did she have her baby at nineteen, but also a week after 9/11. She goes into detail about how it was hard not being able to do all the college fun things, like going on spring break trips, that her sisters and friends were doing. Furthermore, she talks about her personal experience with doctors and peers treating her differently due to her pregnancy.  

Biography

This is an interview of Jane Doe conducted by her daughter. Jane was born on March 27, 1982 in Virginia Beach. This interview is based on her freshmen year of college when she was nineteen years old. Jane attended Old Dominion University while working twenty hours a week at her father’s optometry practice. During her freshmen year of college she realized she was with child. This did not stop her from pressuring her education and part time job. She was a very hard worker throughout the year and had her baby on September 18, 2001 one week after 9/11. Jane Doe continued her education and received her bachelor degree at Old Dominion University. She even pursued her education further and got her master degree at Regent University and her doctorate at Virginia Commonwealth University. She currently works as math coach and is a mom of three.

Research

Mental Challenges, Hardships, and Adverse Effects of Teen Pregnancy

Being a parent, no matter what stage in life, can be a challenge; however, it can be a greater difficulty when the mother has not yet grown up herself. Adolescent pregnancy is not an uncommon occurrence in the United States. One out of every 10 women aged fifteen to nineteen becomes pregnant each year in the United States. Furthermore, many teen mothers experience multitude of mental health problems such as depression, substance abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The high intensity of stress on a young mother imposes a huge threat on the mothers health. It vital that primary health providers play a role in facilitating and encouraging teen parents’ engagement in mental heath treatment. Not only does teen pregnancy pose a threat on the mother’s mental health, but it also can affect her education. By age twenty-two around 50 percent of teen mother have received a high school diploma and only thirty percent have earned a General Education Development (GED) certificate, whereas ninety percent of women who did not give birth during adolescence recipe a high school diploma. Additionally, only ten percent of teen mothers complete a two or four year college program. Adolescent mother also face social challenges. Social programs, their families, and the children’s fathers typically provide limited and tenuous support at best. At the same time, many Americans strongly disapprove of their life situations, resulting in strained social interactions and limited emotional support as well as potential for increasingly negative sanctions from institutions such as schools. As well as the concern for the mother’s health there can be a threat towards the baby’s.  Children who are born to teen mothers are more likely to have a higher risk for low birth weight and infant mortality, have lower levels of emotional support and cognitive stimulation, and have higher rates of foster care placement.

9/11 and the Effects it had on Americans outside of New York

September 11, 2001 is a day Americans will never forget. Nineteen terrorists from al-Qadea, an international Islamist extremist group hijacked four commercial airplanes and deliberatly crashed them into important United States Government facilities. The first two planes were crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center of the upper floors of the north and south towers. A third plane was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virgina. Lastly, a fourth plane was hijacked, but was bravely fought back by passengers who deliberlty flew the plane into an empty field in western Pennsylvania. This attack shocked the whole nation. It affected everyone, even Americans living outside of the areas that were hit. In fact, there was a study conducted to provide insights into the health effects of exposure to maternal psychological stress and how that affected births following the terrorist attack. The study showed that births after 9/11 had a 14% increased risk of being born weighing less than 1,500 grams and a 9% increased risk of being born at around 37 gestational weeks.

Bibliography

• Hodgkinson, Stacy, et al. “Addressing the Mental Health Needs of Pregnant and Parenting Adolescents.” Pediatrics, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Jan. 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3876179/. 
• “The Adverse Effects of Teen Pregnancy.” The Adverse Effects of Teen Pregnancy | Youth.Gov, youth.gov/youth-topics/pregnancy-prevention/adverse-effects-teen-pregnancy. Accessed 4 Mar. 2024. 
• J., Trussell. “Teenage Pregnancy in the United States.” Family Planning Perspectives, U.S. National Library of Medicine, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3229472/#:~:text=One%20out%20of%20every%2010,of%20those%20conceived%20in%20marriage. Accessed 7 Apr. 2024.
• Mollborn, Stefanie, and Janet Jacobs. “‘We’ll Figure A Way’: Teenage Mothers’ Experiences in Shifting Social and Economic Contexts.” Qualitative Sociology, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 21 Dec. 2011, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3285430/.
• Brown, Ryan. “The Intergenerational Impact of Terror: Did The 9/11 Tragedy Impact the Initial Human Capital of the Next Generation?” Demography, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Aug. 2020, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7442658/. 
• “9/11 Faqs.” 9/11 FAQs | National September 11 Memorial & Museum, www.911memorial.org/911-faqs. Accessed 7 Apr. 2024.

About

I heavily researched into the mental, physical, social challenges that are associated with being a teen mother because my interview was all about my own mother’s experience with having a child at nineteen. I used the following websites in my research:

• The website “Addressing the Mental Health Needs of Pregnant and Parenting Adolescents.” The author Dr. Hodgkins and coauthors Dr. Beers and Dr. Southammakosane wrote about mental health challenges faced during and after pregnancy in adolescence. Furthermore, they write about how mental health challenges impact the young mothers.  I used this source to deepen my understanding of mental health hardship my interviewee could have faced during her life. I chose this website because it is written by the government agency The National Library of Medicine. The information shared though has gone through intensive review and is proved legitimate and accurate for the public by the National Library of Medicine. The author Dr. Hodgkins and coauthors Dr. Beers and Dr. Southammakosane are credible experts in the field of research of teen pregnancy and have the authority to write such an article.
• The article “The Adverse Effects of Teen Pregnancy” written by youth.gov talks about how teen mothers have a disadvantage in their education. It provides information about studies run about how many teen moms complete and further their education. The study compared how far teen mother dwelled into their eduction to their peers. I chose this website because it is written by the government to inform the public about the adverse effects of teen pregnancy. Because the article is written by a government organization, the information published is legitimate and has been reviewed effectively. Although the author is not stated the study run is very detailed on how they ran their study and how they got their results.
• The website “Teenage Pregnancy in the United States” was written by J. Trussell who work for the government agency: National Library of Medicine. The article discussed the average amount of women aged fifteen to nineteen that get pregnant in the United States. This is relevant to my research to better understand the relevance of teen pregnancy in the United States. Furthermore, this site was reliable for my reascherch because it has been peer reviewed and written by educated reascehrched that work for the government.
• “We’ll Figure A Way” is a website written Stefanie Mallborn and Janet Jacobs discusses the social challenges faced by teen mothers. This is helpful in my research because it provides insight about what difficulties an adolescent mother can face. This helped me to be more understanding and aware in my interview. Furthermore, this website is trustworthy because it has been heavily reviewed and deemed worthy for the public to view by the government agency: National Library of Medicine

My research also included information about 9/11 because the interviewee had her child a week after the terrorist attack and I wanted to know if this could of affected not only her, but other Americans as well. The following websites were apart of that research:

• I used the 9/11 Memorial Museum website to better understand what happened on the September 11th attack. More specifically, I used the article on their website called “9/11 FAQs”. This article I deemed reliable because it was created by organization dedicated to studying and informing the public about this terrorist attack. The website is non-profit and has been created by a well educated individuals well versed in this topic.
• The article “The Intergenerational Impact of Terror ” was written by Mr. Brown through the government agency National Library of Medicine. The author writes this article to share the results of the study run by the National Library of Medicine of how births and pregnancies were affected by 9/11. The study showed that births after 9/11 had a “14% increased risk of being born weighing less than 1,500 grams and a 9% increased risk of being born at around 37 gestational weeks”. This is relevant because I asked in my interview if she thinks 9/11 had an affect on her pregnancy. Since it is written by the government the study run was done by professionals and shared exactly how the study was done. Furthermore, this article and the statistic has gone through peer-review. Also, the author has declared that there was no conflict of interest while writing this article. 

Transcript

RK

Okay, I’m going to start this interview. Umm.. Can you introduce yourself please?

JD
Hi. I am umm… the interviewee.

RK
Umm.. can you describe what your life looked like when you were 19?

JD
So I was nine months pregnant. I was working and going to ..uh.. school as ..uh.. a college freshman at Old Dominion University. I ..umm… was in a committed relationship, engaged. Very busy.

RK
Thank you. What were your thoughts when you found out you’re pregnant?

JD
Umm… scared, excited, nervous

RK
How are you treated during your pregnancy?

JD
Umm.. [her putting her nail polish away] There were times when I was excluded from things because I was a young mother. Like, from Jobies [Jobies is an exclusive club apart of the Free Masons, which was for young affilated girls aged ten to twenty], I was told I couldn’t participate in some things and told I had to step back. Because even though I was an adult, I was not the image that they wanted to portray. I could, I felt like a lot of people were talking about me behind my back even though I was an adult, I was responsible. Umm… what was the rest of the question?

RK
Just How were you treated during your pregnancy? Like?

JD
Ummm…I kept to myself because I was worried about the way people would treat me. I felt …umm… my doctor at one time treated me I asked questions like you should at any doctor’s appointment. And the response I got was not a caring, compassionate response. It was a response that was … umm… one of ignorance. And I felt like it was because of my age.

RK
Sorry, that happened to you. Um, furthermore on that, currently, how do you think your staff treat you for your first labor compared to your two other ones?

JD
Who?

RK
Umm… when you are in the hospital delivering a baby, how do you think the staff for you your first time compared to your other?

JD
Umm at the hospital? I didn’t notice any big differences? No, the hospital was about the same. I think a the differences were that I was a first time mother compared with the other two.

RK
Umm, you had your baby, Sami, a week after 911. Can you describe what that was like?

JD
Umm… that was as you were giving birth in the hospital. As I was giving birth in the hospital. The news was the only thing on TV was about 911. It was those images played on the screen over and over again. And that’s when the ticker image at the bottom actually started. It wasn’t a thing before then. And that’s when you just saw the rollings news about 911 constantly on the screen. And it’s kind of stuck to this day

RK
What was the ticker?

JD
Like at the bottom like ummm telling you like the count of how many people were .. uh.. found or how many people were missing the update on… ummm? I mean, because it took them a long time to dig through all that rubble.

RK
Did that make it more stressful having your baby or raising her?

JD
Umm… mmm… not really I think because we’re we were removed from it enough. [slight pause] We weren’t traveling if we were traveling. Yes, I think it would have been stressful, more stressful. Umm.. it did kind of make it a …umm… question about okay, what’s the world gonna be like? But America is such a big powerhouse that even a kick in the pants… umm… doesn’t make them fall. It doesn’t make us fall over.

RK
What would you say the hardest or impactful time of your pregnancy was?

JD
Umm… when I had to tell my parents [laughing between us]

RK
I bet that was really scary.

JD
Yes!

RK
How did it been such a young mother impact you or change you?

JD
Um, I had to grow up really quickly. I took on a lot of responsibility, went to school, umm… very driven to make money and have a career and make a life for my kids. And have the image that I have a family that I thought my kids needed I didn’t do a lot of the fun, spring break, dorm life, college life things that my younger sisters did while they were in college.
Yeah, just just very driven on making things. Perfect.

RK
Researcher say that 50% of young mothers have a high school diploma but you have your doctorate. What drove you to like further your education to such a large degree?

JD
Because I didn’t want to be one of those statistics. I also have support of my own parents to be able to do those things. I don’t if I didn’t have their support, financially and emotionally I don’t think I would be able to have done all of those things.

RK
Thank you for your time and interview.

Interview Technology and Process

This interview was held on March 17th, 2024 at the interviewee’s home. I used and laid out my iPhone on a table and using the app Voice Memos to record the audio. I used the google website Mp3 Convertor to convert the audio to mp3. I saved the website conversion to my computer. I used Otter.ai technology to transcribe my audio. I then manually went through the transcript and edited it.

Reflection

This interview shed a lot of light that I didn’t know about my mother. It made me have so much respect for her because all the sacrifices she made to be such a great mother. She is the most hardworking women I have ever met and this interview has me realize she was doing more than I could ever realize. She is truly a powerhouse and I am honored to call her mom.