To think adolescents should be taught more about childbirth in school?

Teaching sex ed is already tricky enough.
You will have children in that class who have suffered SA, who have had siblings who have been still born or whose parents have miscarriages, children who were born via IVF or whose families have experienced infertility, occasionally a child might have been pregnant or had an abortion. Some are happy to talk about such topics and IVf is often brought up and if the child brings it up it will be spoken about sensitively but many aren't and fitting it in between food tech and lunchtime isn't appropriate. Such delicate subjects need TLC to be discussed and that's just the children, many staff members will have direct experience and not be in a position to talk about it whilst managing the behaviour of 30 students.

@titchy that's a very good point.

The overwhelming evidence is that sex education does reduce teenage pregnancies.

For all you know there would have been 8 teen mums if there were no sex ed. There may well have been several abortions that you didn't know about.

I learned this over 40 years ago. A video of a woman giving birth - it was an incredibly easy birth in retrospect but we girls all declared we were never having kids if that was what childbirth was like. A tiny bit about how breast is best with a video of a baby squirming up to its mothers breast after being born and just latching on. So I got the idea breastfeeding is incredibly easy and the baby will just latch on.

At my secondary (early 90s) we were taught about several contraceptive methods yet at least 4 girls were pregnant when we sat our GCSEs.
We also had big discussions on abortion so no one could say they didn't know what one was.
All those girls had their babies and kept them.
So having the knowledge doesn't actually stop the actions does it?

Young girls hearing all this would make them terrified. So, no, I don't think it's right to give them this level of information to sit anguishing about for years before they had a child.

Personally, I think girls should be getting a thorough education (maybe a GCSE) on protecting themselves from males, recognising controlling and abusive behaviour and how to be strong enough to say no to anything they don't like (including the violent nature of sex, these days).

I learnt about childbirth from my friends and decided it wasn't for me. I remember being 15 and deciding not to have children but about 10 years later my friends experiences confirmed by decision.

And thinking about it, whilst both injuries are of course a very serious matter, perhaps we should teach adolescents about making choices about having children depending on their social situation, finances, stability of any relationship, their ability to support a child throughout its own life etc. This would probably be branded deeply unpopular and too socially conservative. Where would we stop?

Because the consequences of not doing so is teenage pregnancy, with adverse outcomes for both parents (or least mum) and child.

Not teaching 15 year olds about birth injuries when they have plenty of time to learn about that in due course doesn’t have adverse outcomes for parent and child.

Unless you’re suggesting that women in their 30s are being tricked into having babies because nobody told them at 15 that they might have birth injuries.

But even if it was taught would it make a difference?
Personally I think the biological urge to have a baby isn't going to stop women from having one because they think "I might tear" or whatever.

Currently the biggest gap in knowledge is about death.
Nobody is taught about the process of death and everybody dies, not everyone has kids

Do you really want 13 and 14 year olds to know the details of how they’re going to be ripped in half??!! The human race will end!

I think that schools have got quite enough to be getting on with to be honest.

Nothing stopping family members teaching this stuff to the younger generation in an appropriate way.

Maybe it would be better to wonder 'should families discuss serious topics with their young people?'.

Anyone working in an office with other women gets an education on all this for free, whether they want to hear it or not.

I suspect teaching all the gory details at 15 would lower the birth rate and politicians are already freaking out about that, so I can’t see it happening. Plus all the parents would complain or want their child exempt from it.

Schools can't teach everything. That information is out there and I don't think it's particularly kept secretive.
Are many women really that oblivious to what giving birth involves? In my experience as soon as anyone announces they are pregnant every female relative or friend who has given birth will have plenty of tales to tell. Usually in gory detail.

This is completely inappropriate for school and really a very weird suggestion for a topic to discuss with young people.

I can't imagine why you think giving horrible details would be helpful.

Hah! I'd love to see how many complaints we can rack up if we taught the gory details about tears and prolapses in a world where a childbirth video in class has to come with a risk assessment (I kid you not) because of regular fainters.

Thanks to a wonderful invention called the Internet, women and men can find out lots of information about pregnancy and childbirth at a time that suits them. Teaching about prolapses and 3rd degree tears to young children is wholly inappropriate.

NCT groups are too late, you're pregnant already by then...

And? It's not like a lesson at age 14 on episiotomies is going to make you decide age 30 to not have children.8

They can’t teach everything.

Did you learn everything you’ve learnt it life at school? No, you continue to learn and grow all through life. If you want to find out about childbirth you can do so.

Just to add to your post

I think in secondary school not only should more be taught about pregnancy and childbirth - so should infertility and pregnancy loss. I definitely do not think it should be a huge topic, but a light going over about the facts and statistics.

I agree with you and think it should be taught, maybe around age 15.

NCT groups are too late, you're pregnant already by then...

I have heard (anecdotally, not in the context of schools, and no idea if actually true or not), that medical professionals (as a generalisation), historically avoided telling women details about pregnancy and childbirth as it was thought that hearing about stats such as "1 in 3 women suffer life changing birth injuries" might negatively affect the fertility rate...

No idea if true, but the avuncular "we won't bother women's pretty little heads with facts that are extremely relevant to them" wouldn't surprise me from the medical establishment.