Fewer Teen Births Recorded in America As Young People Are More Knowledgeable Of Contraceptives
Teen birth rates have taken a nosedive in the past few years, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it is because many women are choosing to give birth in their 30s.
In 2014, the CDC reported there were just 24 births per 1,000 girls under the age of 19, which is a significant drop of 10 percent in just one year, according to the Daily Mail. The federal government agency said this rating is half of what was recorded in 2007, and a third of the rate in 1991.
The CDC researchers believe that this is due to the increasing number of mothers over 30, which now accounts for a third of total births.
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Dr. Paul Jarris, chief medical officer at the March of Dimes, told CBS News that pregnancy has now become taboo among young people. Jarris explained that the youth of today are more knowledgeable about the use of contraceptives.
Even though sexual activity among teenagers has increased, the use of "effective" contraceptive methods such as the IUD coil, the Pill and the injection has been preventing unplanned pregnancies. Because of this, the number of new mothers aged 15 to 19 years old dropped 5.6 percent from 2007 to 2012.
"Adolescents' uptake of any method, regardless of its failure rate, markedly reduces this risk," wrote authors Laura Lindberg, John Santelli, and Sheila Desai from Columbia University.
On the flipside, Dr. Sarka Lisonkova, assistant professor in maternal medicine at the University of British Columbia in Canada, warned that women who decide to have children later in life are at a greater risk of severe complications.
"Women usually worry about their babies, and not so much about the implications for their own health," she said.
She said that mothers over 44 are twice more likely to die or suffer from a serious condition due to their pregnancies compared to a woman who gave birth in her 20s. They are also 10 times more likely to end up in intensive care, and their babies risk autism and Down's syndrome.
