While the number of teenage mothers in the U.S. is on the decline, Arkansas still ranks second highest in the country for teen birth rates, according to numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And a recent study from the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement looks at alarming trends in teenage pregnancy across the state. Ozarks at Large's Daniel Caruth spoke with ACHI president Dr. Joe Thompson about the new research.
The following is an edited transcript of that conversation.
Daniel Caruth: So Dr. Thompson, can you just tell me a little bit about this report that ACHI put out on teen pregnancy rates in Arkansas, you know, what were the major takeaways that you found?
Joe Thompson: This is one more in a series of reports looking at maternal health issues in Arkansas. This focused on teen births, and also the spacing between when a teen has their first birth and then potentially a subsequent birth. Arkansas has one of the highest teenage birth rates in the nation, our state birth rate is about 26 births per 1000. Teens are about 2% of teens being pregnant in a year. And that compares to 14 per 1000 or 1.4. So almost twice the teenage birth rate. So this was an important study that we looked at not only when teenagers had their first child, but also how many teenagers had a subsequent child as a teen, that leads into even more challenges for that young mother
DC: Talking about the challenges, could you just sort of break down, you know, either health challenges or social challenges that that, you know, young woman face if they do get pregnant at a young age, and maybe how that impacts them? If they then go on to, you know, have another kid after that as well?
JT: Well, teens having babies, particularly those that are less than 18, and should be still in high school, face many challenges. I think there are health change challenges with children really, we have kids as young as 12 years old, unfortunately, having babies in our state. So children, young teens, having babies with the health challenges that come they're obviously having a baby, place's increased not only physical, but psychological stress on the mom also makes it harder to do the things that young teens need to be doing go into school, thinking about their future workforce engagement, building their social networks.
DC: Yeah, and I know a lot of this study was also focusing on that, that birth spacing. So could you break down sort of what that what that is, and what you found looking at that?
JT: Nationally, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists recommends birth spacing between deliveries to be at least 18 months, that gives the mom a chance to recover from the first pregnancy, it lets her bond with that first child, and unless the first child gained some autonomy, before a second child is introduced into the family, so we looked at birth spacing, that's 18 months for healthy adult women. Unfortunately, we see in the birth certificate data from Arkansas, we see teens as early as 14 or 15, having yet another pregnancy within 12 months. So these are teenagers, not only that have been impacted by a first pregnancy, but they then subsequently have a second delivery, even while they're still in their school age two years.
DC: And I know that this study looked at 2019 to 2021. Right?
JT: Right.
DC: And so I know that that rate has gone down a little bit over the past, like decade or so. But we're still fairly high, like you were saying in Arkansas compared to nationally. So So what is the issue here? You know, why is this such a problem for us here in Arkansas,
JT:I think our challenges here in Arkansas are several fold. We need our parents to feel equipped and comfortable in talking about reproductive health with their children, probably at an earlier age than parents think they should. So 1112 13 year olds need to have already had that conversation. That's boys and girls, when we fail in that we need to have other sources of information, whether that's your your church, or a social organization or school based reproductive health education. I think all of these are important, critical steps into helping our youth understand how their bodies work, and what their bodies have the potential for. I think, as we see, you know, teens having early birth, there are opportunities to prevent the second birth, for having, you know, the introduction of long acting reversible contraceptives, these are, these are well established mechanisms to prevent unintended pregnancies or frequent repeat pregnancy. So those opportunities for clinical intervention are present. And then I think the support that our communities can offer to help make sure that the conversation around the topic is not one that is in secrecy, or that has any overlay of inappropriateness. But that, you know, people are comfortable having conversations about what the impact is of early deliveries, and what the opportunities are to prevent those.
DC: And from the, I guess, statewide level with policymakers or even you know, nonprofits or other interest groups who are working to maybe combat this issue But what have you seen from them? And what would you like to see? How would you like it to go further maybe.
JT: I think importantly, we are having a discussion now around maternal health, and factors that influence that. I think frequently, we look at the outcome of maternal mortality, that is the death of a mother. But there's a lot of maternal morbidity, impact on Mothers, both health effects and otherwise, that are important to document. And probably it's a special set of issues for our teen mothers, because of where they are in their life stage. So this is one more analytic contribution that our senators tried to provide into the dialogue and discussion. The birth spacing issue is true for all mothers. But it's particularly true for our young teens who have that first baby to make sure that we don't have a second baby and increase the odds of her, you know, failing to achieve what she could through her life stage development.
DC: Yeah. And I was wondering when you were doing this study, and when it's, you know, showing sort of there was a breakdown with different regions of the state was statistic wise, were there any specific areas where it was more prevalent? Or Was anyone more at risk for this? I don't know how those numbers if there was a demographic breakdown or geographic at all.
JT: There are some slight geographic differences with Northwest Arkansas being, you know, 23.6, birth to teens for every 1000 compared with 26. That's not a big variation. So I think northwest Arkansas has an equal challenge to that of the rest of the state.
DC: There's a lot of issues around maternal health that that you guys could look at. Why was it important to focus on teen pregnancy?
JT: This is one of the steps, you know, along our birthing journey that we're advocating for improved supportive moms across the state. Teens are a very special group, particularly our early age teams. And you know, the intentionality of getting pregnant and having a child is an important first step of control for young mothers as they bring newborns into the into the Arkansas space. One of the statistics that really jumps out and is of concern to me, is the birth spacing, and particularly our younger teens. Statewide we have for 15 year olds that have delivered a baby 10% of them are pregnant again, within 12 months, that number heralds a real challenge for that mom, and for the family that is supporting them in the community within which they reside.
DC: And so if someone is reading this, maybe it's a parent or a teacher or someone who has an impact on on a teens life, what do you hope they take away from a study like this or from learning this information?
JT: I hope they take away the fact that this is a real issue in our state, that we have some of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the United States. And the need to have an open honest, candid conversation with our youth about reproductive health. Hopefully the source is the family but if not the family, we've got to have secondary sources of information so that our teams have the information they need to lead a healthy and intentional life.
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