The air had been extra frigid in New Jersey that winter. It was 2005 when young Niama Malachi would wake up at five in the morning to take extra caution, swaddling her four year old baby in multiple layers of thick blanket before embarking on her four bus journey from Irvington to Paramus. Groggily walking through the sharp cold while still holding her toddler like a small baby, she slid into a bus seat and placed her head on the frosted window, tears rolling down her flushed cheeks.

Typically, Niama was very methodical in the mornings, following her routine to the nines. But this day she had been particularly observant of her environment. It was wee hours of the morning so the young mom got to witness the city begin to wake up, and the site was heart wrenching. Graffiti, abandoned cars, people running through the streets, and drug transactions.

A day prior, she came home to see the tagging “REDRUM” had been scribbled on the hallway wall of her project apartment building, in big red letters. Refusing to allow her child to see such a vile message, she grabbed a bucket full of soapy water and began rubbing at the graffiti ferociously, turning the gang tag into a smeared red crayon mess. 

While living in this environment, gang tags were sadly only one of the many traumas Niama observed.  The “REDRUM” incident happened only a week after she had called the police on a person walking down her neighborhood block holding a crack pipe. In response, the police downplayed the issue and never came to investigate.

So on this skin biting day, while her child slept serenely in her arms, she started to formulate a plan on how to get them out of that world. 

“I’m gonna make it out of here, I’m gonna get my child out of here…but when I do,     I’m gonna come back and I’m gonna bring the community all the information I’ve learned.” - Niama Malachi

Niama was seventeen years old when she had her first child. During this time, the United States of America was tackling a severe problem - teenage pregnancy. In a 1988 study detailed by J. Trussell, 10% of teenage girls aged 15-19 would become pregnant. In 1991, the U.S. reached a height of nearly 62% of births per 1000 females were girls ages fifteen to nineteen. 

Because of this, having a child at seventeen was not necessarily something too shocking. In fact, she knew many people that had children as an adolescent. By that point in time, she had friends at various ages who had babies, youngest being twelve years old in middle school. Niama’s sister and cousin also were teenagers with children as she was going through her own pregnancy. Even within her school, she had five girls she had been cliqued up with that were also pregnant, one being a sophomore.

“There were so many teenage pregnant girls that it was not abnormal what was going on with me.” - Niama

Out of the more “developed” countries, the United States has the highest rates of teenage pregnancy to date. While Russia is a close second, American girls are 25% more likely to get pregnant than their parallel. There are many speculations as to why teenage pregnancy was such an epidemic at the time that there is no clear reason as to why. 

In Melissa S. Kearney and Phillip B. Levine journal, “Why is the Teen Birth Rate in the United States So High and Why Does It Matter?”, they pinpoint one major reason. Their evidence concludes that those on a low economic trajectory are more likely to become pregnant while unmarried at an adolescent age. It’s also explained that their negative life outcomes are just continuations of the low income track they were already on. 

Yet, Niama had lived in various communities within different socioeconomic sectors and still found herself surrounded by teenage mothers. This goes the same for the girls within different races as well. While growing up, she didn’t see teen pregnancy target one race in particular but in general be a widespread problem.

Another factor seems to be a lack of contraceptive use within teenagers in the U.S. 

“Sexually active teens in the United States are less likely to use any contraceptive method and especially less likely to use highly effective hormonal methods, primarily the pill, than their peers in other countries” - Heather D. Boonstra

While sexual health is still a taboo topic, conversations around sex were even more constricted pre-2010s. In a survey done by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, it was determined that 68% of teenagers within the U.S. avoided using contraceptives due to the fear that their parents would become aware. 

Though, fear means nothing when there was an overall lack of sexual health education pre-2010. Having lived in the era of rampant teenage pregnancy and being a teen mom herself, Niama admits that she hadn’t received much sex education, if any at all. 

Teenage pregnancy had been so prevalent in her environment that there had been little fear and explanation on the consequences  of having a child at such a young age. There had actually been more emphasis on saying no to drugs and drug prevention. She found herself more scared of the accounts told by D.A.R.E., who would frequent her schools, more than getting pregnant. 

There wasn’t an established education on the options that were put in place for young mothers like herself. It had been her own strength and mindset that pulled her up and out of her rough environment. 

The United States pregnancy rates had already been at a steady decline after the right to contraception was established in 1965 and 1972, and 1973. Seeing as though these rates were overwhelmingly high, the United States implemented an abstinence only sexual health education program in 1996. The main goal was to deter contraceptives and stress how abstinence is the only thing truly effective in preventing negative sexual consequences.

Even though the U.S. continually made leadway in lowering the rates each year, new research had determined that this strict, abstinence only education had actually been ineffective at lowering the teen pregnancy rates. In 2010, the country finally gained funding for more extensive and accurate sexual health education that promoted the use of contraceptives. This is where we can see the country's rates begin to drastically decrease, all the way to 13% as of 2022.

She had been attending Teaneck Hospital Maternal Clinic for a while before having met a nurse who had an abundance of compassion for her situation. This nurse would always be so welcoming to Niama and her baby and would give her advice from time to time. As the nurse’s care for the young mom and her baby grew, she gave Niama a referral for a teenage mother program. 

The program was able to provide a baby kit for aftercare post delivery and counseling to the young moms, something especially needed during such a tumultuous time. Also, it was in this program that she first received education on child birth and child rearing. Prior to this, she had learned about delivering a baby from the media.

“I actually learned how to have a baby off the movie Roots…I was like oh well I’ll just do it like that.” - Niama 

It has been almost twenty years since Niama had her revelation on the cold New Jersey bus. Since then, she immediately took initiative to establish a change within her family’s life for the better. She enrolled herself into a four year college which jump started her twelve years of education, landing herself with a doctorate degree in psychology. 

Niama now resides in Chicago with her two children.  She is the CEO of her own consulting business that was featured on Beyonce’s website for top hundred black owned businesses in Chicago. In 2023, her business had its very own booth at the WBENC convention. She is also a speaker and advocate for the underprivileged and has curated protests for the Black Lives Matter movement.

If you were to ask her now why she thought the teenage pregnancy rates were so high while she was growing up, she’d answer calmly and directly. 

“It was never taken as a big deal” - Niama 

Teenage pregnancy rates had been up to 96% in the fifties so it was a very normalized and almost expected part of life. With this normalization came lower possibilities of graduating from high school, higher incarceration rates and increased foster care placements, among other negative outcomes.

Entering 2024, it is important to understand and dissect what aided in continuous decrease in teenage pregnancy across the United States. As laws - like Roe v.s. Wade - are now being overturned, we must continue to stress sexual education and rights to contraceptives for all women in every state to ensure we do not revert to past societal behaviors.