The thought of even having a baby had never even occured to me. To me a child was something that came after love and marriage, and i haven't even had a long term boyfriend. However my best friend Met her boyfriend in November 1999 and they started planning long term straight away, within two or three weeks "engagement" was discussed and the ring went on the finger... She was only 16 at the time though so everyone dismissed it as a likely to never happen fairytale.

when it got to April 2000 they started discussing children and my friend started flushing her birth-control pills down the toilet as they started trying for a baby. Again, school friends dismissed it as attention seeking, which was a dangerous thing to do. Although she didn't actually get pregnant. About a month later they decided they did not want a child and she went back on the pill. HOWEVER...

She had an infection and got anti-biotics from the doctor...what the doctor had not told her was that the birth control pill and antibiotics cancelled each other out...eaaakkk...i think you can guess the rest...

Yep, she realised she was pregnant in June/July at the age of 16. At the time for her and all of her friends (including me) this seemed to be a really great and exciting thing) She never went back to college to do A-levels and stayed at home doing the pregnant thing. gradually losing touch with friends from school and mostly socialising with her boyfriend's friends.

March 2001 comes around and I get a phone call from her mum telling me that she has had a beautiful baby boy, healthy and gorgeous as all babies are. Mum and child are fine a 6 hour labour no complications. Wow, reality just about sinking in, My best friend is a mother at 17 years of age. I get another phone call days later from a worried mother saying that my best friend is now really depressed, and bored in the hospital, so i ring her have a very stop-and-start conversat
ion...putting down the receiver i realise that somehow i have very little to say to her, worried that i may say something wrong or stupid or upsetting. After a few months of living with her boyfriend they split up. Boyfriend not getting a job, doing nothing to help her. meanwhile i hear from her about once a month.

Present day...She is lving with her mum and family with little baby Connor who is about 6 months , happy and healthy, ex-boyfriend scared to see Connor, worried that if he gets too close my friend will take him away. My best friend now has a job doing very well training to be an accountant...ex-boyfriend still not getting a job.

Connor happy and healthy :)

My friend...happy and yet not happy at the same time, I got another phone call from her mother saying she was depressed because not only had she lost her own friends as they drifted away, she had now lost her boyfriend's social circle, she is now left alone with her family and her child, whom, although she loves him dearly and she is a wonderful mother, she cannot make up her teenage years and enjoy going out like others of her own age.

She has grown up 15 years too fast.