Too much too young? Teenage pregnancy is not a public health problem

CAPULET But saying o'er what I have said before: My child is yet a stranger in the world; She hath not seen the change of fourteen years, Let two more summers wither in their pride, Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride. PARIS Younger than she are happy mothers made. CAPULET And too soon marr'd are those so early made. Romeo and Juliet Act I Scene II. William Shakespeare, (c. 1594) Debates about the appropriate age at which a woman should become a mother are not new, but it is only in recent decades that, in Britain at least, teenage pregnancy has become labelled alongside cardiovascular disease, cancer and mental health as a major public health problem.1 In this paper we will argue that teenage pregnancy should not be conceptualized as a public health problem and suggest that this label is rather a reflection of what is considered to be—in this time and place—socially, culturally and economically acceptable.