Bright, articulate and very ambitious, 17-year-old Dana Brown thought she had it all mapped out.

A pupil at CedarBridge Academy, she had planned to do a Bachelors degree in Business and eventually pursue a career in America.

But teenage carelessness and perhaps naivety has delayed her plans, for a few years, at least.

Now seven-and-a-half months pregnant, she is more concerned about getting the money together to buy a baby's pram, nappies and cot, rather than think about her studies or when she is next going out with her friends. But Dana, who lives with her mother in Hamilton Parish, is one of the lucky ones. She is fortunate enough to have a very supportive family, which is financially able to help her.

Without them, she realises, her future would be a lot more bleak.

"I was 16 when I got pregnant and I could not believe it would ever happen to me,'' said the calm teenager.

"I felt a lot of different emotions. Most of all, I was scared -- I wanted to cry -- and I didn't want to tell anyone.

"I had known the father of the baby for a while. We started out as friends, and it progressed from there.

"We were together for little over a year and I had been on the pill for a few months, but it made me feel sick, so I stopped taking it.

"We did use condoms, but it was just one of those heat-of-the-moment things.

About six months after I became sexually active, I got pregnant.'' As often happens, she and the father of the baby are no longer together, but they are friends.

He sometimes works and has offered to help out where he can, but Dana knows that it will be up to her to make a life for her and her child.

"I was confused for a while and didn't really know if I wanted to keep the baby, or not,'' she went on.

"I had a lot of mixed emotions. I had hurt my family and my mom was very disappointed, but I knew the end decision was down to me.

"But after I had been to the clinic and heard the heartbeat of the baby, there was no way I could go through with an abortion. I knew then that it was a living thing.'' Since then, Dana has come a long way. She studies at the school for young mothers at Teen Services and works when she can with her mother to earn cash.

She still has her ambitions, but knows it will now take longer for her to reach her goals.

In the meantime, she is using her experience to help other girls her age to avoid the mistakes she has made.

She is going into schools around the Island talking to youngsters in an effort to prove that it can happen to anyone.

Dana added: "Girls need to realise that it can happen to them. They need to focus on their education and what they want to do with their lives in the future.

"You can't say to children they have to abstain from sex, but you can advise them to use contraception. If girls have sex they should use birth control pills and condoms, to be extra safe.

"I sometimes feel like I'm missing out on my youth. I'm often tired and have to think about saving money.

"I am proof that it can happen to anyone. Sometimes people in the street look at me and think that because I'm pregnant I have a bad reputation, but being pregnant does not make you a whore.

"You can be a nice girl, have good grades and have a nice, supportive family with a nice house. All it takes is just one act of foolishness and you can end up like me -- pregnant.''