According to Statistics Sweden, childbearing in older age groups has increased while the number of teenage mothers has decreased. Elin Zollfrank became pregnant in 2009 while a high school student in Borås and gave birth to her daughter Hanna two weeks after turning 17. She and the father decided to continue the pregnancy.
Elin Zollfrank described experiencing extreme hunger as a high school student, which made her suspect something was wrong, leading her to eat a pizza and then eight toasted sandwiches with butter and cheese. She met a midwife who told her the pregnancy test was positive, and she had thought she could not be pregnant because she was on birth control pills. Elin Zollfrank had started a blog before becoming pregnant, which grew as she wrote about her pregnancy, baby time, and being a teenage mother.
I have experienced that the tolerance for making mistakes is less if you are a young parent.
Elin Zollfrank described doing everything in a somewhat reversed order, such as graduating high school, getting a driver's license, getting her first job, traveling, and further educating herself as an adult, all together with Hanna. Hanna will turn 17 in the fall.
I got to meet a midwife who told me that the test was positive. Then I started crying. Somewhere I had thought that no, but of course I'm not pregnant, I was on birth control pills.
One was very afraid of making mistakes. Say I wrote in the blog that I had arranged a babysitter and was going out, then some wrote that I only thought about partying because I was so young. While if I followed older parents who wrote that they were going to party, then it was more 'how fun that you got a babysitter and can treat yourselves'.
No, well, I have gotten to do everything in a somewhat reversed order and have gotten to do everything, together with Hanna. Hanna was with me when I graduated high school, got my driver's license, got my first job, when I have traveled and further educated myself as an adult.