Birth Control And Unmarried Young Women

Abstract: This book presents the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the Committee on Child Development Research and Public Policy within the National Research Council. The panel examined research and existing programs which address the areas of adolescent sexuality, pregnancy, and childbearing with the intent of making recommendations for policy making, program design, program evaluation, and research. The panel's report is presented in chapters addressing the following topics: trends in adolescent sexuality and fertility, society and changing roles of adolescents, determinants of sexual behavior, effects of adolescent childbearing, interventions, and priorities for data collection, research, policies, and programs. An accompanying volume contains the working papers on which the report was based. The working papers address three broad areas, which are: 1) influences on early sexual and fertility behavior, 2) consequences of early sexual and fertility behavior, and 3) programs and policies related to teen pregnancy and sexuality.

Experts estimate that nearly 60 percent of all U.S. pregnanciesâ€"and 81 percent of pregnancies among adolescentsâ€"are unintended. Yet the topic of preventing these unintended pregnancies has long been treated gingerly because of personal sensitivities and public controversies, especially the angry debate over abortion. Additionally, child welfare advocates long have overlooked the connection between pregnancy planning and the improved well-being of families and communities that results when children are wanted. Now, current issuesâ€"health care and welfare reform, and the new international focus on populationâ€"are drawing attention to the consequences of unintended pregnancy. In this climate The Best Intentions offers a timely exploration of family planning issues from a distinguished panel of experts. This committee sheds much-needed light on the questions and controversies surrounding unintended pregnancy. The book offers specific recommendations to put the United States on par with other developed nations in terms of contraceptive attitudes and policies, and it considers the effectiveness of over 20 pregnancy prevention programs. The Best Intentions explores problematic definitionsâ€""unintended" versus "unwanted" versus "mistimed"â€"and presents data on pregnancy rates and trends. The book also summarizes the health and social consequences of unintended pregnancies, for both men and women, and for the children they bear. Why does unintended pregnancy occur? In discussions of "reasons behind the rates," the book examines Americans' ambivalence about sexuality and the many other social, cultural, religious, and economic factors that affect our approach to contraception. The committee explores the complicated web of peer pressure, life aspirations, and notions of romance that shape an individual's decisions about sex, contraception, and pregnancy. And the book looks at such practical issues as the attitudes of doctors toward birth control and the place of contraception in both health insurance and "managed care." The Best Intentions offers frank discussion, synthesis of data, and policy recommendations on one of today's most sensitive social topics. This book will be important to policymakers, health and social service personnel, foundation executives, opinion leaders, researchers, and concerned individuals.

These four papers supplement the book Contraception and Reproduction: Health Consequences for Women and Children in the Developing World by bringing together data and analyses that would otherwise be difficult to obtain in a single source. The topics addressed are an analysis of the relationship between maternal mortality and changing reproductive patterns; the risks and benefits of contraception; the effects of changing reproductive patterns on infant health; and the psychosocial consequences to women of controlled fertility and contraceptive use.

Here is the full report of the 1970 National Fertility Study, a national sample survey for which thousands of women were interviewed who had been married at some time and were of reproductive age when they were interviewed. The book assesses the growth in the use of the pill and the IUD, the increasing reliance on contraceptive sterilization, and both the intended and the unwanted fertility of American women. The volume opens with an introduction to the survey and its methods. Contraceptive practice in 1970 is then compared with data for 1965, and an analysis is supplied of trends since 1955 in the attitudes of Roman Catholics. Originally published in 1977. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

"The average woman concerned about pregnancy spends approximately thirty years trying to prevent conception. She largely does so alone using prescription birth control, a phenomenon often taken for granted as natural and beneficial in the United States. In Just Get on the Pill, Littlejohn draws on interviews to show how young women come to take responsibility for prescription birth control as the "woman's method" and relinquish control of external condoms as the "man's method." She uncovers how gendered compulsory birth control-in which women are held accountable for preventing and resolving pregnancies in gender-constrained ways-encroaches on women's reproductive autonomy and erodes their ability to protect themselves from disease. In tracing the gendered politics of pregnancy prevention, Littlejohn argues that the gender division of labor in birth control is not natural. It is unjust"--

This data booklet highlights estimates of the prevalence of individual contraceptive methods based on the World Contraceptive Use 2019 (which draws from 1,247 surveys for 195 countries or areas of the world) and additional tabulations obtained from microdata sets and survey reports. The estimates are presented for female and male sterilisation, intrauterine device (IUD), implant, injectable, pill, male condom, withdrawal, rhythm and other methods combined.

By all indicators, the reproductive health of Americans has been deteriorating since 1980. Our nation is troubled by rates of teen pregnancies and newborn deaths that are worse than almost all others in the Western world. Science and Babies is a straightforward presentation of the major reproductive issues we face that suggests answers for the public. The book discusses how the clash of opinions on sex and family planning prevents us from making a national commitment to reproductive health; why people in the United States have fewer contraceptive choices than those in many other countries; what we need to do to improve social and medical services for teens and people living in poverty; how couples should "shop" for a fertility service and make consumer-wise decisions; and what we can expect in the futureâ€"featuring interesting accounts of potential scientific advances.