Life couldn't have been sweeter living with my mom. I had the best clothes, I did well at school and I came home to a hot lunch every day. My life's direction pointed North. I was a mama's boy and a good student during the week.

But on the weekend I partied and flirted with girls.

The prettiest girls always looked at me and I kept my options open; always single and ready to mingle. I felt being a player was my rite of passage. I didn’t want to commit! I also didn’t want to catch something nasty. So I protected my lover-on-the-loose lifestyle by making sure that I always had a condom.

Then one night the condom broke.

My heart nearly stopped. I didn’t want a baby! Or a baby mama. We had to go to the clinic the next day to get emergency contraceptives. It was the worst wait of my life.

Since then, I’ve been rethinking exactly how far I’m willing to go with the girls in my life.

Condoms are generally very effective but can fail sometimes, especially when not used 100% correctly. The only true ‘safer sex’ is abstinence, if that means no sexual contact with another person 100% of the time. Read about what to do if you do have unprotected sex or the condom breaks.