National Teen Pregnancy Awareness Day is on May 6. This is our opportunity to talk with our daughters and sons about the risks involved with having a child as a teenager including the potential for medical complications, such as premature labor. Then there are the socioeconomic consequences as well.
Approximately one-third of young women in the United States become pregnant during their teens, according to Womenshealthcentral.com. While the highest teen birth rate occurs now in Hispanic women (83 out of 1000 in 2006) there has been a steady decline in the rates for African American girls. There has been a 23 perecent drop in teen pregnancy among Black teens. But we’re not out of the woods yet.
Take time today to set the record straight and talk to your teenage children, siblings, cousins or friends about the consequences of teenage pregnancy. For more information on how to start the discussion, go to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy at thenationalcampaign.org–WLW