FSCA NEWS

The National Institutes of Health have reported that teen pregnancies in the United States rose in 2006, for the first time since 1991, according to CNN. Pregnancy in teens is "one of the key indicators for the health of the teen population because it not only reflects their health at this point, but it reflects their health and well-being for the next 20 to 40 years," said Edward J. Sondik, director of the National Center for Health Statistics in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Expectant mothers aged 15 to 19 are less likely to get prenatal care or gain weight appropriately, and they are also more likely to smoke than pregnant women aged 20 years or older. One advocate of measures to prevent teen pregnancies, Michele Ozumba, said a cutback in community resources over the last eight years could help explain the new data. "All small community-based organizations doing youth programming are struggling just to keep the doors open," said Ozumba, director of the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention. "There are no additional resources to respond to the needs that we're seeing every day."
Read more at http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/07/10/teen.pregnancy/index.html