Researching away

I've started the research for my certification paper. The teen pregnancy statistics are saddening and appalling. I knew that teen pregnancy was bad but I was naive as to how bad it is and disappointed to hear that where we are now is considered to be better.  I was out to lunch with my Aunt today discussing my paper.  My Aunt teaches a Teen Mom program in a public school system.  I was alarmed to hear her talk about how many of these girls were planned Teen Moms.  Many of these girls even stated that their Moms were proud of them and and excited when they told them!  Clearly, more education needs to be done with families.  How do we break a cycle that does not want to be broken?  Evidence shows that areas with Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs in the public schools have seen a decline in teen birth rates.  In 2006 CT was granted a $6 million federal grant to help public schools provide more services to pregnant and parenting teens.  These programs are at full capacity serving approximately 2,000 families with an estimated need of 4,000 families.  Clearly, more is needed.  As parents Josh and I plan to do our best to make ourselves approachable to our daughters.  To make them feel as if they can and should talk to us about anything and everything.  
 I read on a website that 1 of every 3 young women will become pregnant by the age of 20.  So that means that 1 of our 3 girls will be a Teen Mom!  I can't tell you how much this scares me.  I know that we would be supportive in every way possible but I can't even imagine what my initial reaction would be.  I can say what it should be but you don't know until you're in the moment.  I give lots of credit to all the parents that have dealt with this.
Now I want to start focusing on the statistics involving second time Teen Moms.  CT has implemented programs into public schools but still greatly lacks in programs/services for Teen Moms.  

Some updates

This week ended up being surprisingly productive. I found this great website Voice Boks. It's a website for female written blogs. It was started a few years ago by a female blogger and it's fantastic. Since joining the website I have increased my blog traffic and have met some great people. I have been working on some layout changes so keep an eye out!
I've really been trying to step up my social media game. As of now it's seriously lacking. I have no clue what Klout and Google + and Tumblr are? I'm on Twitter and participated in my 1st Twitter party last night, and it was a Doula Party! It was a lot of fun but very overwhelming! I totally felt like I couldn't keep up. But it was very cool and I was able to learn lots and meet some great Doulas. Of course there wasn't even 1 Doula from the CT area! Still struggling in that department but I'm going to keep trying.
I got permission from CAPPA to write my research paper on Teen Pregnancy so I am no longer dreading this task. On the contrary I'm a little excited to start. I know I keep saying it but there is such a need for Teen Mom support in CT. Hoping to have my research paper done by next weekend. Wish me luck!