These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: How can family planning programs delay repeat teenage pregnancies?
    Author: Furstenberg FF, Masnick GS, Ricketts SA.
    Journal: Fam Plann Perspect; 1972 Jul; 4(3):54-60. PubMed ID: 5040827.
    Abstract:
    The Adolescent Family Clinic of Sinai Hospital in Baltimore which opened in 1965 and which provides family planning services to pregnant adolescents and teenage parents in the hope of preventing early repeat pregnancies is partially evaluated. Evaluation of family planning programs working with teenage mothers is complicated by the variability and instability both to the critical socioeconomic contingencies associated with the young woman's motivations to have or avoid having children and in their ongoing exposure to the risk of pregnancy. The problem is to determine how the experiences of these young women who receive family planning services affect those circumstances that alter the timing of subsequent pregnancies. A life table approach in studying the factors related to the onset of the 2nd pregnancy has been used. This technique is designed specifically to study the temporal pattern of events in the fertility process, and its modification allows the tracing of the probability that a 2nd pregnancy has occurred at various durations into the postpartum period. All pregnant women under age 18 who entered the hospital were eligible to participate in the special program; however, because of staff limitations, 40% of 404 women were assigned on a random basis to the hospital's regular prenatal program. The difference in the 2 programs was the degree of education and encouragement offered. Most of the women were seen during their 2nd trimester. After a 1st visit they were closely supervised through the early months of the postpartum period. In all respects the 2 groups of women were identical. All the young women were interviewed shortly after they registered for prenatal care. A year after delivery, over 95% were interviewed again. 2 years later 90% of the original 404 were reinterviewed. The results are from all 3 interviews. The Adolescent Family Clinic program had limited success in preventing unwanted 2nd pregnancies. 3 years after the 1st delivery approximately 50% of both groups had become pregnant again. Analysis of the data reveals that the risk of pregnancy alters markedly as marital situations, motivation to avoid pregnancy, and use of contraception change. A family planning program must deal with these changes. Most young women want to postpone a 2nd pregnancy and are willing to use birth control. However, when frightening or disturbing side effects occur, they often stop using their method. If they are not offered reassurance when problems arise, they may choose to leave matters to chance. Long-term programs offering initial and ongoing family planning services have the best chance of achieving long-term results with teenagers.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]