Does Jamie Lynn Spears' Birth Story Glamourize Teen Pregnancy?

by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger

13 Jul 2008 11:45 PM

She's a 17-year-old unmarried mother with a 3-week-old daughter... and she's famous.

Last week actress Jamie Lynn Spears (younger sister of reforming pop star Britney Spears) shared the first pictures of her newborn daughter Maddie Briann Aldridge on the cover of OK! Magazine. The first time mom also shared Maddie's birth story and after reading it you have to wonder how many teens it inspired to procreate.

According to Jamie Lynn, giving birth was a "surreal" and "amazing" experience. And the labor itself was "perfect."

The teen tells the magazine she was induced on the morning of Thursday, June 19th, and while she was nervous about the delivery process "it all fell into place without a hitch" when it came time to push.

Says young Jamie Lynn:

"I was right on schedule. They'd told me it would be an eight- to 12-hour labor, and I was ready to have the baby in three to four hours. I had a perfect pregnancy and a perfect delivery. There was no c-section. There were no emergencies. She was perfectly healthy. I had a normal, natural birth. I was very blessed."

I would say so. Labor with my own daughter lasted 21 hours and included a failed epidural, three hours of pushing and giving birth to a posterior (sunny-side up) baby who was so jaundice she needed to be strapped to a belli bed for nearly a week.

But as Jamie Lynn tells it pushing out little Maddie was a "breeze."

And now that she and 19-year-old fiance Casey Aldridge are home in their plush new digs in Mississippi, the teen (who insists she is raising her daughter without the help of nannies) says she couldn't be happier.

In the article, Spears, who undoubtedly has a financial advantage over the typical teenage mother, continues to paint an ideal picture of new parenthood saying that she and Casey have Maddie in a bassinet next to their bed, and even though she is less than a month old the new parents have already figured out the baby's routine so "there's no screaming and crying."

"Sometimes, in the middle of the night, he'll get up and rock her for me," Spears says of her fiance. "He is so good with her, you'd think he'd been around babies all his life. He instinctively knows what to do to make her happy."

Jamie Lynn describes Maddie as a "very good" little girl, who "feeds every two or three hours then goes right back to sleep" without fussing.

And as for having first-time mom jitters, Jamie Lynn claims they are non-existent:

"At first, I didn't know how I was going to know when to do what, but it all just falls into place. We get up in the morning, and she gets her little bath. Then I get my bath. We have a routine, and I love routines. I've worked one out with her, and we're happy going about our little life."

In fact, life as a teen mom sounds perfect when described by Jamie Lynn:

"I love taking care of her. It is so much fun. I just want to hug her and kiss her, and I'm happy all the time."

Doesn't exactly sound like a commercial for abstinence, does it?

I'm not judging Jamie Lynn. In fact, I'm happy to hear that she considers herself "blessed" that life is going so well. But, for the millions of teen girls out there picking up the magazine wondering how they can be as happy as Jamie Lynn, getting pregnant sounds like a pretty good option.

Then again they might not have needed to read Jamie Lynn's birth story to encourage them. A study released by the National Institutes of Health last week said that teen births rose in 2006 -- a first in the U.S. since 1991.

What do you make of Jamie Lynn's birth story?

Learn more about Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism.

View Full Profile | More from this Blogger

Magic_Mikki (10150) 14 Jul 2008 04:57 AM

Wow.. Love the article! You took the words right out of my mouth, only I couldn't have said it better. I recently picked up an issue of the magazine and read Jamie Lynn's story, and was disgusted. I don't know ANYONE who has had such a perfect pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpardum as JLS, let alone a teenager! I wasn't even finished reading the first page when I wanted to toss every issue of the mag out before teen girls could find them! In my opinon, girls who were borderline "I wanna be a teen mommy" would certainly be pushed over the edge!

Thanks for the great read!

Tristi Pinkston (10839) 14 Jul 2008 01:11 PM

I'm not saying I wish she'd had a horrible labor and delivery, but like you've been saying, I do wonder what these teen girls are going to think! Esp. when their stories end up totally differently, and that fiance isn't rocking the baby back to sleep but instead is high-tailing it out of town, and the girls will feel like they were given a false picture of what motherhood and teenage motherhood at that, is really all about.

Libby Pelham (12871) 14 Jul 2008 09:59 PM

"I love taking care of her. It is so much fun. I just want to hug her and kiss her, and I'm happy all the time." - and besides, I can always give her to a grandma or a nanny.

Jamie Lynn has plenty of support and even if she doesn't, she can buy it. Most girls are lucky to have any support and the large majority certainly don't have the money to make life easier. But, Jamie Lynn makes it sound so perfect, the girls won't see that part of the big picture.

Babies are work and girls shouldn't have them until they are ready to make the baby the most important thing in their lives. It was wrong when society ostracized teen pregnancies, but it also somehow seems wrong to embrace it :-(

Michele Cheplic (37339) 15 Jul 2008 07:52 AM

Thanks Mikki, you are right, I doubt the magazine will be welcomed by many parents of teenage girls. And Tristi and Libby I agree that OK! was irresponsible in not tempering Jamie Lynn's comments with other harder hitting questions that could have shown that parenthood is not all flowers and rainbows... then again this is OK! were talking about, who just shelled out $1 million for the rights to the interview and probably don't want to burn their bridge in case Jamie Lynn pops out another baby.