In the mid 90’s, during the popularity rise of Southern Hip Hop, there was a song entitled, “My Baby Daddy.” If you haven’t heard of this sone trust me it’s fine. Lol The song similar to other southern rap songs had a catchy hook and quick beat. The hook was:

“Who dat is? (guy voice) That’s just my baby daddy. (girl’s voice)”

This song like many other songs of this time gave teens and more specifically the Black community a negative representation. Unfortunately, the decrease in teen pregnancy has not made much impact on the decrease in overall unintended pregnancy. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published today that over “one-third of all births in the United States were unintended at the time of conception.”

This isn’t necessarily new information but just statistical information. We all may know at least one person that has conceived and wasn’t planning on it. The important task at hand is how to lower the rate of “unintended” pregnancies. The hoopla surrounding pregnancy is really only when?… It is usually when a married couple is planning to have a child. The way more women are having sex outside of marriage the concept of “baby” just isn’t there for numerous reasons. One reason is because of the false advertisement associated with contraceptives that they will keep them from conceiving. Another reason is I just had sex one time with him. Ladies it only takes ONE TIME!

As a generation we need to realize that the pregnancy rates are not as much the concern as it is how and why these young ladies and women are getting pregnant. Below is a layout of the specifics associated with the US Department of Health and Human Services.

CALL TO ACTION: What are you doing to prevent yourself from having an “unintended pregnancy? Does that really work? Have you tried celibacy?

• The current picture of pregnancy intentions and childbearing shows many disparities by age, marital status, and race/ethnicity.
  • Not surprisingly, the proportion of births that were unintended at conception is much higher for younger women, ranging from 77% among teens to 50% among women age 20-24, to 25% among women age 25-44
  • This proportion is also much higher among women who were neither married nor cohabiting (67%), compared to cohabiting women (51%) and married women (23%).
  • The percent unintended was similar for women with no high school diploma, a diploma but no college, and some college but no degree (ranging from 37% to 41%), while it was much lower for women with a college degree (17%)
  • Similarly, women with lower incomes were also more likely to report the birth was unintended at conception, with the percentage ranging from 48% of women with incomes below poverty to 18% of women with incomes above 400% of poverty.
  • Non-Hispanic white women were the least likely to report that their birth was unintended at conception—31%, compared to 43% of Hispanic women and 54% of non-Hispanic black women.
• Women who indicated that their birth was unintended at conception reported a number of reasons for not using contraception when they conceived.  The most common reason was she did not think she could get pregnant (36%), and this reason was particularly common among some subgroups, including women with less education (42%), women below poverty (38%), and Hispanic women (49%).
• Births that were unintended and/or unwanted conception are followed by greater risks to infant health, including lack of prenatal care, smoking during pregnancy, lower rates of breastfeeding, and low birthweight.  In addition, these births are nearly twice as likely to be paid for through Medicaid (65% vs. 35%).  While these results do not prove causality, they are consistent with a growing body of literature that suggests pregnancy intentions are key to infant wellbeing.