Teen Moms Clueless about Chances of Getting Pregnant, says Report

It seems that a combination of “miseducation” or pressure to have intercourse is causing the numbers of unintended teenage pregnancies in the U.S. to escalate, says a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP).

According to a survey among almost 5,000 teenage moms with unplanned pregnancies between 2004 and 2008, 1/3 of those who did not use birth control said they didn’t use contraceptives because they didn’t think they’d get pregnant.

Part of the respondents were also moms who believed they wouldn’t get pregnant during their first sexual intercourse, didn’t feel they’d conceive at that time of the month or thought they were sterile.
Comments Bill Albert, a spokesman for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned

Pregnancy, “This report underscores how much misperception, ambivalence and magical thinking put teens at risk for unintended pregnancy.”

Lorrie Gavin, one of the study’s co authors, adds, “I think what surprised us was the extent that they were not using contraception.”

The teen moms were also asked what type of birth control they used during the last time they had sex, to which 20 percent said the pill or a birth control patch. 24 percent said they used condoms. Officials from the CDC think it’s the wrong or inconsistent use of these contraceptives that led to the unplanned pregnancy.

Another major finding from the study was that 25 percent of the teen moms refrained from using birth control because their partner did not want to, which implies that sex education must be modified not just to discuss the physical aspects of it, but the situations as well where women are forced to do something they don’t necessarily want to.

Sources:

• January 19, 2012. Mike Stobbe. “Many Teen Moms Say They Didn’t Think They Could Get Pregnant” healthland.time.com 

• January 19, 2012. Amanda Peterson Beadle. “CDC: One-Third Of Teen Mothers Didn’t Use Birth Control Because They Didn’t Think They Could Get Pregnant” thinkprogress.org 

• January 20, 2012. Tiffany Gabbay. “Study: Many Teen Moms Surprised They Got Pregnant, Thought It Couldn’t Happen During First Sexual Encounter” theblaze.com 

• “Public Health News Roundup: January 20” blog.rwjf.org 

Photo by Polina Sergeeva via flickr creative commons