Reproductive Health

Prepregnancy Contraceptive Use Among Teens with Unintended Pregnancies Resulting in Live Births—Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), 2004–2008.
This report shows that about half of teen females who had an unintended pregnancy and delivered a live infant, said they did not use contraception before getting pregnant. Of these, almost one third said they did not use contraception because they thought they could not get pregnant at the time. Source: MMWR 2012;61(02):25–29.

Announcing the Release of Smoking Cessation for Pregnancy and Beyond: A Virtual Clinic
This is an interactive Web-based program designed for health care professionals to hone their skills in assisting pregnant women to quit smoking. Up to 4 hours of continuing education credits can be earned by completing the practicum.

Abortion Surveillance—United States, 2008
In 2008, 825,564 legal induced abortions were reported to CDC from 49 reporting areas. This represents essentially no change from the number of abortions reported in 2007.
Source: MMWR 2011;60(No. 15).

The November issue of Preventing Chronic Disease includes a series of research articles and a commentary highlighting the prevalence, screening guidelines, and effective interventions to address chronic diseases conditions and risk factors among reproductive age women.

New Infant Safe Sleep Recommendations
CDC supports new recommendations issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). These new recommendations aim to reduce the risk of infant death from SIDS as well as death from known sleep-related causes. Read the AAP fact sheet for more information.

2009 Assisted Reproductive Technology Success Rates: National Summary and Fertility Clinic Data
The data for this national report comes from the 441 fertility clinics reporting in 2009 that provided and verified data on the outcomes of all ART cycles started at their clinics.

The Reproductive Health Assessment After Disaster Toolkit
The Reproductive Health Assessment After Disaster Toolkit provides a set of tools to assess the reproductive health needs of women aged 15—44 affected by natural and man-made disasters. The data gathered will promote and enhance evidence-based local programs and services to improve the reproductive health of women and their families.

Teen Pregnancy: The Importance of Prevention
During the past 20 years, the rate of teen girls having children has dropped by about 40%, but approximately 1,100 teen girls still give birth everyday. Learn what you can do to reduce teen pregnancy.