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Trends in Childbearing, Reproductive Health

The CDC issued an interesting report on childbearing and the sexual and reproductive lives of American women. Here are some highlights.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics issued an in-depth report on childbearing and the sexual and reproductive lives of American women. The report contains data from a nationally representative sample of women 15-44 years of age, who were interviewed as part of the National Survey of Family Growth. The study produced a number of interesting findings, including:

• The leading method of contraception remains female sterilization (10.7 million women), followed by the oral contraceptive pill (10.4 million), the male condom (7.9 million), and male sterilization (4.2 million).

• New contraceptive methods were used by small proportions of women in 1995, such as hormonal injectables (used by 2 percent of women), hormonal implants (1 percent), and female condoms (less than 1 percent).

• Condom use among never-married women tripled between 1982 and 1995, from 4 to 14 percent. Condom use at first intercourse increased from 18 percent in the 1970's to 36 percent in the late 1980's and 54 percent in the 1990's.

• Ten percent of births between 1990 and 1995 were unwanted by the mother at the time of conception, compared with 12 percent between 1984-88. For black women, the decrease in unwanted births between these two periods was particularly large -- from 29 to 21 percent.


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