Kianna Randall is the seventeen-year-old rising high school senior highlighted in this week’s episode of 16 and Pregnant. She lives in Fort Worth, Texas, and her boyfriend of two months, Zak Hegab, lives thirty minutes away and attends a different high school. Both Kianna and Zak grew up without their fathers, and they are viewing this baby in light of that…but with very different opinions.
The daughter of a teen mom, Kianna is intelligent and well-spoken. She wants to go to college and become a veterinarian. We learn her mother Rachel was very open with Kianna in hopes of not having her daughter in the same position she was in during high school. Kianna admits that she got pregnant after forgetting to take her birth control pill for three days. Kianna reveals that she briefly considered abortion, but is now contemplating adoption, so that her baby can have the life she will be unable to give him…and she will be able to have the life she planned for herself. The couple is having a boy.
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Zak, on the other hand, is adamantly opposed to adoption. He wants to the father that he never had. Hoping to find out that Zak will be supportive in more ways than just loving his son, Kianna asks about his plans to get a job. He explains that at fifteen, it’s hard for him to find work and implies that his girlfriend is looking for excuses to give up their unborn son. Of course, in the next breath, Zak says he’s unsure if he’s ready to give up football for fatherhood. He also accuses Kianna of “looking for the easy way out” by considering adoption.
After an ultrasound, Kianna begins to have doubts about giving up her baby, and over a dinner date, Zak says he’ll give up football and try to find a job. The couple decides to keep the baby. Her mother is supportive, but straight-up in the “what to expect” department…and it’s not pretty. Kianna realizes she has a hard road ahead, but luckily the pregnant students at her high school must take a parenting class with a monitored, life-like doll. Right off the bat, Zak wants to leave the doll in the car while the couple goes to dinner. I want to smack this kid (and all his subtitles), but I think it’s immaturity and not total abusive d-bagness that makes him act this way. That’s a better excuse, right?
Kianna is potentially pre-eclamptic and must do a twenty-four hour urine collection. Having known close friends who have suffered with it, I know it’s a terrifying situation that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Kianna fills her urine jug, and while I am worried for this stranger on my television screen, I have to giggle when she buckles the jug in the passenger side’s seat belt to take to the hospital. The doctor’s office calls with Kianna’s results, and she is instructed to admit herself that afternoon to be induced. Zak doesn’t leave her side, but of course has broken his arm playing that sport he promised to give up in lieu of a job. After seventeen hours of labor, the doctor calls for an emergency c-section, and Kay’den Elijah is born.
Zak immediately takes to fatherhood, changing diapers and calming the crying infant. However, because he has no car, he is only able to help out on weekends. Kianna is basically a single parent who struggles to stay awake, much less get through her schoolwork. Zak means well, but he doesn’t really listen when Kianna talks about how hard it is to raise Kay’den on her own. He seems to like the benefits of fatherhood without the actual blood, sweat, and tears Kianna is exuding. Again, I want to hate him, but I think he’s a good kid…it’s just babies having babies.
Kianna’s school has a day care which I’m sure is beyond helpful. However, as the show comes to a close, she is still struggling with Zak’s inability to help during the week, as well as her desires to achieve more than she will realistically be able to do now that she is responsible for another life. I daresay she is one of the more well-spoken girls this season.
On Mtv’s aftershow, Kianna reveals that she and Zak are still together and that they are born-again virgins who are waiting until their wedding night to have sex again. This makes her feel secure in their relationship because she now knows that sex wasn’t the most important thing to him–she was. Kianna discusses how expensive it is to raise a baby, as well as the pressure she felt from Zak to keep their son and not put him up for adoption. I sincerely hope this couple is the exception, and not the rule.
