‘I wish someone had told me how hard it is’

FORMER teenage mother Holly Railton has gone back to school so that students can learn from her mistake.

The Dublin mother of two young girls, Kayleigh, 9, and Alisha, 6, has been involved with Real Deal since the project started on a pilot basis in 2007.

“I love being involved because I hope that sharing my experience with the girls will help them learn from my mistakes and not get pregnant so young,” she said.

Ms Railton, 28, an early school-leaver who planned her first child with a long-term boyfriend at just 18, said teenagers responded to real-life stories.

“I love my daughters lots but I honestly wished I had waited until I was older to have them,” she said.

Ms Railton, a lone parent, said she could see herself in some of the girls she met.

“They are the way I was in school — thinking I knew it all. But I just wish someone had told me how hard it is to be a teenage mother bringing up a child all alone.”

She loved giving the girls the knowledge to make informed decisions. “Basically, I am telling the girls the things I wished I had known when I was their age.”

What shocked her the most was the lack of knowledge about sexually transmitted infections. “Lots of them didn’t realise that there are so many STIs and how easy it is to catch them.”

Ms Railton said she was left to rear her children and pay bills as her friends went travelling, worked and bought nice cars.

“Having a child is a 24-hour job and is not as easy as it is made out to be in the magazines and on telly,” she said.

“If I can prevent even one girl making a decision that they will regret forever or I can prevent just one girl from becoming a teenage mother or contracting a STI, I will feel a huge sense of accomplishment,” she said.

Lone parent Laura McLoughlin, 24, from Sallins, Co Kildare, was 16 when she had her son, Blake, now eight, after an unplanned pregnancy.

Her mother had died from leukaemia when she was nine and her older sister, who had taken her mother’s place in her life, was also pregnant and had moved out.

“I wished someone had told me how hard it would be,” said Ms McLoughlin.

And while Blake is a much loved child, she wished there was a programme like Real Deal when she was a girl.

“I did not have any idea about getting pregnant. I barely knew about my periods at that stage of my life.” she said.