My Girlfriend's Pregnant!: A Teen’s Guide to Becoming a Dad

by Chloe Shantz-Hilkes, Willow Dawson

For teens faced with an unplanned pregnancy, the news can be devastating. Typically, most attention is focused on the needs of the mother, but teenage fathers also face a future filled with fear, doubt, and guilt. My Girlfriend’s Pregnant provides much-needed information and support for teens suddenly thrust in the role of father.

Based on interviews with teenage dads, social workers, and medical professionals, this book explores:

• What it’s like to discover that your girlfriend is pregnant
• What to expect during pregnancy and childbirth
• The experience of parenthood—both positive and negative
• How involved the role of a teen dad can be
• How parenthood can affect young relationships
• The stress of being a teen dad
• The impact of abortion and adoption on young fathers

With an extensive list of further readings and resources to help with issues ranging from child support to bonding with your child, this book illustrates to young dads that they are not alone and that there are positive ways of dealing with the difficult choices that lie ahead.

Genres: Young Adult

128 pages, Hardcover

First published August 8, 2015

Reviews

[Andréa]

Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Heidi | Paper Safari Book Blog · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the only books I've read that focuses on the father. Most teen pregnancy books are written from the mothers perspective, and I really appreciate the shift. With great quotes throughout the book this book gives some great insight into the thoughts and feelings of many young men who find out their girlfriend is pregnant. While most of the book does focus on parenting there are also chapters on the other alternatives, abortion and adoption. This book also includes chapters on dealing with stress, domestic violence, relationships, and childbirth. There is also a resource guide in the back.

Finding out that your girlfriend is pregnant can bring up so many emotions and this book validates so many different responses to different scenarios. Whether you plan to parent, place the child for adoption or your girlfriend has an abortion there is no right or wrong way to feel and this book has interviews with many different fathers in different situations. This book is very much about really looking at what is best for you and taking care of yourself. It also stresses that staying together may not be the best option and if you do try to stay together what obstacles you may face and not to use the pregnancy as the reason to stay. There are many co-parenting relationships out there that are healthier because they decided not to stay together than if they had tried to stay together.

While this book is geared toward teens I believe any young adult up through their 20's could benefit from reading it. When that pregnancy test turns out positive there are all kinds of emotions that happen and this book helps break them down so you can start to put them into perspective.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great resource that gives males/fathers literature to turn to if they find themselves in the position of expectant father or as a chance to form opinions about possible outcomes of choosing to engage in a sexual relationship. Get ready to explore different scenarios and outcomes as men share their experiences of discovering about the pregnancy and the choices that they make whether it is abortion, adoption or childbirth.
The "Further Resources" section will be a great benefit to those looking to gain more information, I enjoyed that it had a breakdown of different state resources.
I didn't particularly care for the images in the book. To me, including pictures of a sonogram, fetus, planned parenthood clinic, diagram of current costs of diapers/ formula would have been nicer than the phone alert images.
*I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Trever · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Received this from Netgalley for an honest review*

This book was interesting since I have never been told of pregnancy from a boy/mans' perspective. It was cool to see how each different person said how they approached different scenarios in teenage pregnancy.

I like how the book doesn't take a stand, but looking back the book didn't offer any real advice on what to do... yes, there was more references and places to find links, but the book didn't give any real hard evidence or statistics.

I think boys going through this would help, but something with more of a hard statistics and what you should do, would be better.

[Amy Mathers]

http://www.nationalreadingcampaign.ca...

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concise nonfiction resource for teens. Good tone.

I read an ARC from NetGalley.

[Ms. Kahn]

I read this to review for School Library Journal. Read my review there.