My brother is getting married later this month, and it's only because he got his girlfriend pregnant and she is due in October.
I'm worried about him, because it doesn't seem like a good idea to marry anyone just because of an accidental pregnancy, even if he's 27.
The thing is, I know this kind of stuff isn't unheard of. I believe the term is a "shotgun wedding." But I don't understand why people do it.
Is it such a disgrace to have a child without being married? We're not in the 1800s anymore. And I know some people say it's for the child, but what could the child possibly be getting by having his/her parents married?
My mom and dad never married and they've been together for 18 years now. (I'm sixteen, and my older brother is from my mother's previous marriage.) I know that technically makes me a "bastard" but no one cares about that stuff anymore. I'm a perfectly ordinary teen and I don't feel like I'm worth less than anyone else just because my parents aren't married. Most of my friends' parents don't even talk, and they were married at one point.

What I'm asking is: Why do people have shotgun weddings? What's it worth?