Online CPR Certification Blog

Research and statistics review

About 1 for every 5 births by American teenagers of between 15 and 19 years is not their first. This is according to a recent federal report.

Out of 365,000 teenagers who delivered in the year 2010, about 67,000 of them have had at least a child before. This translates to 18.3%.  This percentage had decreased from 19.5% in the year 2007. Out of the 67,000 teens that we’ve talked of as having had at least a child before, 86 % of them were having their second child. This is according to research by centers of disease prevention.

Research also indicates that more and more teenage mothers are using birth controls. About 91% of them are learning to use contraceptives following the experience of having their first child birth. Out of all the contraceptives used by these teenagers only about 22% are viewed to be highly effective. Some of these include: vasectonomy, hormonal implant, and IUDs. With these, research shows that the risk of a teenage girl getting pregnant is quite low. Indeed, it is not more than 1 pregnancy per 100 users within a year. Other methods like the pill, ring and use of injections are regarded as “fairly effective”.

The discussion of trend

According to Mr. Tom Frieden the director of CDC, the trend for birth control usage as well as usage of birth control methods that are highly effective is going up every day. Mr Tom Frieden expressed optimism that many teenage mothers are keen to avoid getting pregnant again but raised concerns that only 20 % of such teen moms are using birth control methods that would be regarded as highly effective.

More than 75% of teenage moms who are sexually active use either the “most highly” effective or “fairly” effective birth control methods after child birth.

According to Jennifer Manlove who is a well known scientist and researcher for a non governmental organization, going through one child birth can be very challenging for the teenage mom. She adds on and says that having a second birth can be extremely overwhelming on the teenage mother and compound her already difficult situation. Although she was not involved in the CDC’s teenage pregnancy reports, many do agree with her statements.

Teenage Americans that were of Indian native had the highest teen birth rates with 21.6%. They were closely followed by Hispanics at 20.9% and black Americans at 20.4%. The whites recorded the lowest percentage at 14.8%. The state of Texas recorded the highest teen repeat birth percentage at 22% while New Hampshire recorded the lowest at 10%. 7states among them Georgia, Mississippi, Arizona, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Nevada had repeat births at 20%. Other 6 states among them Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Wyoming, Maine and New York have less than 15% repeat births.

Jennifer Manlove stated that repeat births among the teens was at 25% in the year 1990, noting that there had been steady decline in such repeat births. She was of the opinion that long acting birth control methods had a lot to do with the decline.

The CDC report was upbeat that LARC methods were better than methods like use of condoms and pills because they do not need to be daily monitored. However the report was also quick to point out that barriers like high cost and unavailability as regards LARC could pose problems.