Photo Credit: Associated Press
Teen pregnancy is a media hot button. A possible pregnancy pact resulting in 17 teenage girls from Gloucester High School expecting babies. Jamie Lynn Spears, all of 17 years old, appearing on the cover of OK! magazine saying that motherhood is the "best feeling in the world."
So does it surprise anyone to hear that teen pregnancy rates increased in the United States between 2006 and 2007? It should since it's the first spike in more than 15 years.
Last week the National Institute of Health reported that teen pregnancy rates went up. The report, America's Children in Brief: Key National Indications of Well-being, 2008, was conducted and published by Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics.
The report says that birth rates among teen girls in the U.S., ages 15 to 17, increased, from 21 live births for every 1,000 girls in 2005, to 22 per 1,000 in 2006. Broken down, that's about 133,000 births in 2005 and it jumped to 138,920 births in 2006.
I was curious about what those in the medical field think about this data so I chatted with Dr. Philip D. Darney, Professor and Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at San Francisco General Hospital. He's also the co-founder and co-director of Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health Policy at the University of California, San Francisco.
Dr. Darney agreed with other accounts that this slight spike in teen birth rates isn't a trend yet and that a great majority of teen pregnancies are unintended. But he's also watching these birth rates very closely and is interested in seeing what data shows of the next few years.
As to what could have caused the increase? Dr. Darney pointed out things to think about when look at this type of study:
- Age ranges. "Older teens are postponing pregnancy and the under-15 rates are not going up," said Dr. Darney. So what's happening in that 15-17 year old age set?
- Ethnicity impacts thoughts on family. "What we call 'family size aspiration' is larger from younger Hispanic women who make up an increasing number of the population," said Dr. Darney. "They are likely to want to begin childbearing earlier and want to have larger families."
- Teen perceptions on HIV. Dr. Darney thinks that perhaps teens may perceive that HIV isn't the danger that is was in the past. Are they using condoms less frequently because think HIV is no longer a risk?
- Sex Ed...abstinence-only messages don't work. Dr. Darney specifically noted that in 1992, California had the highest teen birth rate in the country, even higher than the national average. The state has since been teaching teens about contraception and the teen birth rate has decreased steeply since then. He compared this to Texas, which embraced the federally-funded "abstinence-only" message...and has the highest birth rate in the country.
All good points and worth further discussion. I was particularly surprised with his comment about teens potentially thinking they weren't at risk for HIV, which is just frightening.
What's your take?
