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Can Robotic Babies Help Prevent Teenage Pregnancies?

Worldwide some 17 million teenage girls give birth every year, facing increased risk of health complications during pregnancy as well as lifelong economic challenges for themselves and their families. Education and dreams of advancement are often derailed for these young mothers. Latin America has the third highest teenage pregnancy rate in the world. While the global rate has declined over the past decade, the pace of decline in Latin America lags behind that of other regions. In Colombia one in five mothers is between 15 and 19 years old; poor rural teens are at the greatest risk of early pregnancy.

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Articles of Interest

A Girl Gives Birth: An Intimate Look at Teen Motherhood in Latin America

Rodriguez says that by sharing Gloria’s story he hopes to raise awareness of teen pregnancy, sexual abuse, and the lack of opportunities for Latin American girls.

Asking this question can help prevent unplanned pregnancies among teens

"Would you like to become pregnant in the next year?” Asking teenage girls that question is one simple way to prevent unplanned pregnancies.

Could Gossip Be Causing Teen Pregnancy?

Meet the girl who's getting to the bottom of Nicaragua's teen pregnancy epidemic.

Does 16 and Pregnant Prevent or Promote Teen Pregnancy?

Four years into 16 and Pregnant‘s run, teen pregnancy rates are at a record low. Births to teen moms have been steadily dropping since 1991, down 44 percent in nine years, according to the CDC. Rates dropped nine percent from 2009 to 2010 alone, reaching a historic low of 34.3 births per 1000 women aged 15-19. Considering that 16 and Pregnant premiered in the summer of 2009, it’s tempting to wonder whether the show is in some way responsible.

Give Teens Access to Birth Control and, Amazingly, the Teen Pregnancy Rate Drops

Colorado pins its dropping teen pregnancy rate on improved access to birth control.

Teen Birth Trends: In Brief

Research suggests that multiple trends have led to lower U.S. teen pregnancy and birth rates.

Teen Pregnancy Is Down, and There Is a Simple Reason

We may still be fighting over the Affordable Care Act and health care in general in America, but there’s one area where things are definitely getting better: teen pregnancy. According to a study in the Journal of Adolescent Health, the birth rate among teenagers in the United States dropped 36 percent between 2007 and 2013, and the reason is crazy simple: Teen pregnancy is down because teens are using birth control better and more often.

Teen Pregnancy Linked to Premature Death, Study Finds

A large analysis in Canada finds that teenagers who had babies were twice as likely to die before age 31.

Teenage pregnancies won't be stopped by shaming young mothers

More than anything, girls at risk of becoming pregnant need education, contraception - and love.

The rapid decline in teen births is a huge public health success story

Those who study teen pregnancy know that teen births are declining quickly — but they still don't understand exactly why this is happening. They do have a lot of theories, something I've covered previously for Vox. Some of those theories don't hold up so well a year or two later. For example, many used to argue that the depressed teen birthrate might reflect the recession leading to more cautious decisions about childbearing. But here we are in 2016, with the economy recovering and the teen birthrate declining as quickly as ever before.

Unwanted Teenage Pregnancy and Its Complications: A Narrative Review

Teenage pregnancy may have a huge negative social and medical influence on mothers' and children's health globally. Compared to adult primigravida, young women experience more harmful perinatal problems, such as premature births, neonatal fatalities and stillbirths, and the delivery of children with low birth weight.

What Pregnancy and Childbirth Do to the Bodies of Young Girls

In the cases he has seen, early pregnancy arrests the very young mother’s physical growth, and also often her mental development because many girls leave school and lose normal social interaction with peers, he said. But while an anemic mother struggles to carry the pregnancy, fetuses appropriate nutrients and continue to grow, until they have well surpassed what a young mother’s pelvis can deliver.

Why childbirth is so dangerous for many young teens

It's a precarious moment to give birth. It's not uncommon for girls to face obstructed labor "because their pelvis is not developed enough to accommodate a vaginal delivery," said Dr. Sarah Prager, an obstetrics and gynecology professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Going through with a vaginal birth could cause lasting damage to a teen's pelvic area and rectum. So, teenage childbirth often ends in cesarean section, causing uterine scarring that almost guarantees she will need to give birth via cesarean section if she has more children.

Why Have Teen Pregnancy Rates Dropped?

Something quite remarkable has happened to teenage pregnancy rates in the past few years. They’ve reached a three-decade low, down by 40 percent since 1990. Teen births and abortions also have fallen respectively by one-third and one-half. Better sex education, though a sensible practice, doesn’t deserve the full credit.

Resources

11 Facts About Teen Pregnancy

3 in 10 teen American girls will get pregnant at least once before age 20. That’s nearly 750,000 teen pregnancies every year.

CDC

Although reasons for the declines are not totally clear, evidence suggests these declines are due to more teens abstaining from sexual activity, and more teens who are sexually active using birth control than in previous years. Still, the US teen birth rate is substantially higher than in other western industrialized nations, and racial/ethnic and geographic disparities in teen birth rates persist.