Jamie Lynn Spears was too scared to ask for birth control

Britney Spears' little sister Jamie Lynn fell pregnant aged 16 because she was "really scared" to discuss birth control with her doctor.

The actress/singer was too nervous to ask for contraception advice but admits she was stunned to learn she was expecting her first child with then-boyfriend Casey Aldridge.

She tells Glamour magazine, "I had been on a Nickelodeon show, Zoey 101, and after we wrapped shooting, I just wanted to go home to Louisiana and finish high school, be a cheerleader, all that. Then I found out I was pregnant. I was 16. I'd had one boyfriend. It doesn't make it perfect or all right. But I was judged for something that probably most everyone does... I was like every other teenager, except I had this last name...

"I believe in safety and birth control as prevention. But like many young girls... I was really scared to go to the doctor. And I was on a Nickelodeon show, and it (felt) especially embarrassing to ask someone to put me on birth control. I didn't want to ask my doctor."

Spears, now a single mum at 20, plans to teach her three-year-old daughter Maddie all about safe sex when she is a teenager to help her make "smart choices".

She adds, "It'd be dumb to sit here and say that Maddie isn't going to like a boy one day and she isn't going to have a boyfriend. I'll just have to handle that the best way that I can. Both her daddy and me will caution her (about having sex), and I would hope that she would not want to do that at all, but I have to make sure that I'm realistic too. I've got to figure out a way to communicate to her to make smart choices and make the best decisions she can."