悲傷小媽媽？再看青少女生育問題

Teen Childbearing in Taiwan

汪淑娟(Shu-Chuan Wang)

《台灣醫學人文學刊》 6卷1&2期 (2005/09) Pp. 167-181

https://doi.org/10.30097/FJMH.200509.0014

摘要

一般人總會直覺的把青少女生育和青少女未婚懷孕串聯，或下意識覺得太早結婚是不理智的，這不免將青少女生育污名化（輟學、貧窮的同義詞）。現有國內的研究思維強調青少女懷孕後種種的負面後果，以致使我們的政策思考傾向避免懷孕事實的發生（譬如加強性教育），雖這是較無爭議的方向，殊不知，我們其實已經忽略了自願結婚懷孕與接受懷孕且不全然後悔生子的那些青少女。本文以既有文獻與統計資料、過去的調查結果為本，配合人口政策的回顧，來定位青少女生育問題，並且以懷孕為階段分流討論，發現青少女生育其實是主流意識型態定義下的社會問題，暫且不論未婚懷孕的部份，青少女生育係因社會期望的改變而成為社會問題，事實上，懷孕生子不全然是悲傷無望的，可能是少女在結構限制下比較好的選擇，因此，我們認為國內相關的衛生政策應定位為使不想懷孕的人知道如何避孕，懷孕生子的人知道如何成功的為人母，想當小媽媽的人被尊重並得到社會支持。

關鍵字

青少女生育 ； 污名化 ； 人口政策 ； 意識型態 ； 社會問題 ； 結構限制

並列摘要

Teen childbearing in Taiwan is commonly either related to premarital adolescent pregnancy or viewed as an irrational choice. This, inevitably, stigmatizes adolescent childbearing. That is, these teenagers are often thought as dropouts, living in poverty. Thus, we tend to focus on the negative results of teen childbearing and how to prevent adolescent pregnancy. This paper argues teen childbearing is not always negative and sad. Being adolescent mothers is greatly influenced by not only individual factors but also structural factors. In other words, getting married and giving births may be a better choice for some teens living in a very limited economic and cultural environment. The resources should be used to guide them to prevent unwanted births. Those who give births should be taught how to be successful care-givers. Moreover, these young mothers should receive social support and the choice of getting married and pregnant should be respected. Childbearing is, after all, a private issue; public influence should not interfere.