Safe sex

So I’m a few days from turning 18 and I’m still a virgin, but lately I’ve been thinking about having sex already a LOT, but in my household I’ve grown up with my mom telling me about teen pregnancy and how having sex now at my age and especially outside of marriage is risking everything (as in ending up pregnant), so that’s really the only reason I haven’t tried it because of the fear in the back of my head, I would greatly appreciate if you guys could let me know how to practice super safe sex (I obv know about condoms, but are they really reliable?) oh and birth control is out of the picture :/ thanks <3