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How to Curb Teenage Pregnancies: A Medical Perspective
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11891 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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Date : |
8 / 1987 |
1,884 Words |
| Author
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Reginald C. Tsang, M.D.
Reginald C. Tsang is professor of pediatrics, obstetrics, and
gynecology and director of the Perinatal Research Institute at
the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine Children's
Hospital Medical Center. |
The problem of adolescent pregnancy is a national disgrace. When I make rounds in the neonatal intensive care nursery, I find that on some days, half of the infants are from adolescent pregnancies. Death and severe disabilities are part of the unsung consequences of adolescent pregnancies.
There are more than one million teenage pregnancies a year, costing $16.6 billion. These are stark numbers, sad numbers.
The time has come to face the problem squarely. It has always been puzzling why we do not have the lowest rate of infant mortality in the world. In fact, we are 17th in the world for infant morality, in spite of our having the most sophisticated technology and the greatest medical advances on this planet. The truth is that there is a linear relationship between national infant mortality rates and the rate of teenage pregnancies.
Japan has the world's lowest rate of teenage pregnancies (1 percent) as well as the lowest infant mortality rates. The U.S. average teenage pregnancy rate, in contrast, is 14 percent. Reducing the teenage pregnancy rate in the United States will significantly reduce the number of low-birth-weight infants and drop infant mortality rates dramatically, too.
In pediatrics, we are constantly reminded of the tremendous value of prevention. Certainly contraceptives are a possible way of preventing pregnancy; to the extent that this can be achieved it would be good. But is that too late? We have always emphasized that to prevent any disease, we go back to the basics, and the basic cause of teenage pregnancy is teenage
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