I WAS A
TEEN MOM
When Amy was just 15, she became pregnant with her first child. After being thrown out of her house and
looked down on by others in her community, she gave birth to a baby boy. But that was just the start of the
complications she had to deal with after discovering her infant son had epilepsy.
words & images by AMY COOK
I became pregnant halfway through my sophomore year
at the ripe age of 15. This was before MTV had glamorized
teen pregnancy so instead of being given my own television
show, I was shunned and labeled a whore by my “friends”
at school. I hid the pregnancy for five months and on the
last day of school I broke the news to my mother. It was our
running joke that I would say to her, “Mom, we need to talk.”
She would reply with, “Are you pregnant?” and we would
laugh and laugh. On this day, I said we needed to talk, she
responded, and when she laughed and I didn’t she got up
and ran to the bathroom to get sick. We estimated how far
along I was and I set up an appointment for a visit with an
OBGYN (my first).
In 1996, doctors were less than kind about the miracle
of a baby when in relation to a 15 year old patient. Besides the fact that I was super young, I looked like I was
12. I went into the doctor’s office, the nurses were cold and
brisk and the doctor was very matter-of-fact and not remotely congratulatory. My mom drove me, but she refused to
come inside. I came out to the parking lot an hour later with
a due date of October 12, 1996, a prescription for prenatal
vitamins, and an ultrasound showing a boy waving for the
camera. She cried some more, but I was elated.
Y
ou count them out. Ten fingers, ten toes. You
are told your child has a high apgar score and
you know what this means because in preparation you read all the right books. You look into
the face of a beautiful baby boy and your heart
soars. (This could also be the feeling of your heart dropping
into your shoes, because “holy crap” you’re a mom now.)
The maternity ward is a happy place where everyone is calm
and cheerful and cooing happy little sentiments to mom and
baby alike. It is a magical land where life is brought into the
world and you have the happiest, most gorgeous of babies
and he is completely flawless. Except for two things: his
mom is only 16 and he has a rare neurological disorder yet
to be diagnosed.
Being a teen mom was not in my plans, but being a mom
at some point in my life was. I