5 kids left motherless as Shellie Westerman dies on 6th pregnancy

[Marv]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...pregnancy.html

Five young children were left without their mother when she died just hours after falling ill during a sixth pregnancy, an inquest heard.

Mother-of-five Shellie Westerman contracted a rare infection and doctors were unable to save her.

The 25-year-old, who was ten weeks pregnant, had gone to bed complaining only of a minor headache which was put down to her pregnancy.

Yet within 12 hours she had died in hospital from septicaemia after collapsing at home, a coroner in Sheffield was told. After the hearing, her devastated mother Carol Grist said: 'She lived her life for her kids. She was a fantastic mother.'

Miss Westerman, from Barnsley, left Bethany, nine, twins Jordan and Jack, seven, Kai, five and Harley, three, after her death last November.

The children are now being cared for by their father Wayne Green, Miss Westerman's ex-partner, and by her mother.
[...]

By the time Mrs Grist arrived at her daughter's home at 8.30am the next day she had collapsed.

'She was limp and her lips were purple. She was going cold,' she said.
An ambulance was called and paramedics worked on Shellie for 40 minutes but could not revive her. She was pronounced dead in hospital later.

Pathologist Dr Kim Suvarna told the inquest there was no evidence of a heart attack or stroke.

She had suffered inflammation of the small blood vessels around her heart and the unborn baby and an infection had entered her blood stream.

The doctor said victims of septicaemia could become seriously ill within minutes or just a few hours. He added: 'A decline in 12 hours would not be unusual.'

Shellie Westerman


Shellie Westerman's five children, clockwise from left Jordan, 7, Jack, 7, Bethany, 9, Harley, 3 and Kai, 5


Poor kids. My heart goes out to them losing their loving mother at such a young age.

[Athena]

Cute kids, tragic story, but damn... 6 kids by 25? That's pretty aggressive.

[goddess]

i know people who are like younger then 25...that have more then 4 kids.....my friends lil sister is 17 and is on baby #4

[Vanik]

With the way a lot of teens are getting pregnant. I am not really surprised by the amount of kids she had. 10 years ago, kids were getting pregnant all the time in high school. And that was just 10 years ago. Now they are popping them out like candy just because they think it's "a-maz-ing". Granted, some of them become amazing parents...but most of the time there are a lot of issues.

I was surprised to hear that the mother was seperated from the kids' father. I wonder why that is, since she has 5/6 kids with him. It even looks like she knew something was wrong. She made an appointment with the doctor, but didn't make it. That sucks.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

With the way a lot of teens are getting pregnant. I am not really surprised by the amount of kids she had. 10 years ago, kids were getting pregnant all the time in high school. And that was just 10 years ago.

I know that less girls got knocked up in my daughters HS than did in my own. I thought perhaps I just went to a slutty school in the 70's.

I got curious about what the teen pregnancy and birth rates were currently.

From 1940 to 1957, the teen birth rate increased 78 percent to a record high. The birth rate dropped fairly steadily from the end of the 1950s through the mid-1980s, but then increased 24 percent between 1986 and 1991. Between 1991 and 2005, the teen birth rate decreased 35 percent to a record low of 40.5 in 2005. However, the teen birth rate between 2005 and 2006 increased 3 percent.

The U.S. teen pregnancy rate for teens aged 15-19 decreased 38 percent between 1990 and 2004. After reaching 117 pregnancies per 1,000 females aged 15-19 in 1990, the pregnancy rate has decreased to 72 pregnancies per 1,000 females aged 15-19 in 2004. (Pregnancy data include births, abortions, and miscarriages.)

Both quotes are from http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/n...rth-rates.aspx

Despite decreasing rates, I probably still was at a slutty school any which way you look at it.

[Vanik]

It may be low...however...statistics still claim 4:10 girls get pregnant. That's way too many. I went to a really big school, and can honestly say it was more about 8:10. Insane numbers. Yeah, it's gone down...but not by too much. Add on that most teens have abortions when they get pregnant too. So the numbers aren't really counting that either. They only go by birth certificates.

Do you know that one in three teen girls in the United States is estimated to get pregnant at least once before age 20? 65 While this is better than a decade ago, when the number was four in ten girls, it is still too high.

http://www.4parents.gov/sexrisky/tee...teen_preg.html

Apparently oral sex has also been on the "rise" since (I guess) our time. Though, I do think I went to a slutty, big high school.

Statistics 2006-2009: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/...enbirths_N.htm

The federal data — largely from birth certificates — shows widespread statistically significant increases for 2006, the most recent year for which data are available

Apparently 2006 the rates skyrocketed and completely overcame what 2005 did by almost double. If you just click on a state, you can tell it's been on the rise (just from 2005-2006) alone.

[PooperScooper]

Wow.....poor kids :( I am on my sixth pregnancy right now........I had my first 3 while I was in highschool. I also got married (and still am) to my husband when I was 16. Not all teen pregnancy are bad.....just sayin ;)

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Apparently 2006 the rates skyrocketed and completely overcame what 2005 did by almost double. If you just click on a state, you can tell it's been on the rise (just from 2005-2006) alone.

From the USA Today article you quoted:

These state-by-state breakdowns add to previously released data from the national center that complete the picture for 2006, a year in which the general fertility rate hit its highest level since 1971 and one that ended a 34% drop in births among women ages 15-19 from 1991 to 2005. In 2006, the teen birth rate increased 3%, to 41.9 births per 1,000 women ages 15-19.

I hardly call a 3% increase a "skyrocket". Disconcerting, yes. It also repeats exactly what I was saying... (and previously quoted).

What the statistics say to me is that there were more births to teen mom's in the 70's and continued to drop until 2006 when there was a rise... but still not a rise to the 70's levels.

On the other hand, teen pregnancies rose up until the 90's, when the rates began to decrease. Why those pregnacies did not result in a birth is a topic for another time.

In looking at it closer, I am actually surprised at the birth rates in the 50's!

The chart and the table in this document reflect births per 1,000 teen girls aged 15-19 in the United States and are the most recent national data available.

http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/r..._1940-2006.pdf

96.3 births per 1,000 teens in 1957! My MOM was a teen during the slutty period!!

I think the older you are when you first become a parent, the better it is for both the parent and the child. That is not to say some teens don't make great parents, only that maturity adds to the experience. You can't convince most teens of that (or anything).

On another note, the title on this article is misleading. It's "only" her 5th pregnancy, as she has a set of twins.