and childbirth would have represented an enormous physical and emotional experience.
Pregnancy can be frightening and overwhelming even for an adult who has had years to prepare for the possibility. Going through that experience at just 12 years old presents an entirely different set of challenges.
There are medical appointments, physical changes, emotional uncertainty, anxiety about childbirth, and countless questions about what life will look like afterward.
And then, after the baby arrives, the real work begins.
A newborn does not care how old a parent is.
A baby wakes when it is hungry.
A baby cries when something is wrong.
A baby needs to be fed, comforted, changed, held, and cared for around the clock.
The baby’s needs do not disappear because a young parent has school the following morning or wants time with friends.
That is one of the most difficult realities of becoming a parent so early
