Theme: Repeat Teen Pregnancies
Need
Nearly one out of five teenagers in Northeast Florida who has a baby will become pregnant again before leaving her teens. Additional births multiply the difficulties experienced by teen mothers[1]. Eighteen percent of teen births in Northeast Florida in 2009 were to mothers who have had a previous pregnancy.
Results from listening tours within the Duval County Public Schools with teens who experienced multiple pregnancies and births showed pregnancies occurred because the teens did not have access to birth control, did not use birth control because they believe it doesn’t work or used birth control but still became pregnant.
Regional Scan
Pregnant teens are priority for receipt of Healthy Start and Healthy Families services. In 2010, ____ teens received case management and related services from Healthy Start in Northeast Florida. ____ teens were served by Healthy Families during the same period. However, neither program has a specific intervention tailored for teen participants aimed at preventing subsequent pregnancies. Each of the school systems in the five-county area provides special educational programs to encourage pregnant and parenting teens to complete their high school education. None of these programs, however, offer services such as family planning or comprehensive sex education to reduce subsequent pregnancies among participants.
Evidence-based Practices
Computer-Assisted Motivational Interviewing: This intervention was developed for African American pregnant teen girls ages 12-18 and is delivered using laptop computers in the teens' home or in a community-based setting. The teen answers several questions about her current sexual relationships, contraceptive and condom use intentions, and current contraceptive behaviors. An algorithm assesses the answers and predicts the teens risk level, allowing the counselor to tailor the 20-minute session. The intervention sessions are initiated 6-weeks postpartum and continued quarterly through 24 weeks postpartum.
Home-Based Mentoring for First-Time Adolescent Mothers: This home-based program was developed for urban, low-income, African-American, first time adolescent mothers and aimed to reduce rapid repeat births. The program is a 19-lesson home-based intervention that included 2 introductory lessons along with 17 additional lessons that blend themes of adolescent development and parenting.
Nurse Family Partnership: NFP is an intensive home visitation program that targets first-time mothers, with priority given to teen moms living in high-risk communities. The model uses specially trained nurses to provide a curriculum- and individual-driven intervention that promotes healthy child development. NFP has documented impacts on repeat births and short inter-pregnancy intervals. Prenatal home visits will occur once a week for the first four weeks, then every other week until the baby is born. Postpartum visits occur weekly for the first six weeks and then every other week until the baby is 21 months old. From 21-24 months, home visits will occur monthly. Nurse home visitors have caseload caps of 25 participants. NFP is one of seven evidence-based models eligible for funding in Florida with federal home visiting dollars.
Implementation Strategies
1. Pilot the integration of evidence-based programs aimed at preventing repeat teen pregnancies into current Healthy Start case management.
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Potential Partners for Implementation
· Healthy Start
· Healthy Families
· Other?
· Other?
· Other?
[1] Schelar, E., Franzetta, K., & Manlove, J. (2007). Repeat Teen Childbearing: Differences Across States and by Race and Ethnicity (Issue Brief No. 2007-23). Washington, DC: Child Trends
