Why are so many young women still getting pregnant when they didn't intend to? Is it that they don't know enough about how pregnancy happens? Or how to use birth control? Or, are they using birth control sometimes, and thinking that's as good as using it every time? Or that they want to know more but are too embarassed to ask? Or that it just won't happen to them? Turns out, the answer is all of the above, and more.

Check out this great article in the current issue of Self Magazine: "Single, Pregnant and Panicked."

It includes findings from some Campaign polling and focus groups that shed light on what single 20-somethings really think—and what they still don't know—about pregnancy and birth control. The findings are pretty shocking.

Check out the full survey.

Here's some of what we learned:

• 54% of sexually active (but not monogamous) single 20-somethings don't use birth control every time.


• While nearly half of our survey respondents said they don't look for information about preventing pregnancy because they already know enough about it, we found that 50% of those women surveyed don't know at what point in their cycle they are most likely to get pregnant, and 23% of women we surveyed think that taking birth control pills increases the risk of getting all types of cancers (NOT true!).


• 21% said finding the right source of information on pregnancy prevention is too hard.


• 21% of young adult women said they don't seek out information about birth control and pregnancy prevention because it's too embarrassing to talk about.


• 67% of our respondents (male and female) say they know nothing about IUDs, which the medical community considers the most effective form of long-acting contraception.


• 16% of young adult men say they only use contraception if their partners insist on it.

Many who are taking chances with their birth control say that if pregnancy hasn't happened yet, it probably won't...that's the most magical thinking of all.

Go to self.com to read the article and take the pregnancy quiz that nearly 1,000 women have already failed.  And don't forget to tell us what you think.

The fortunate among us will not only usher in a new year tonight, we'll also be welcoming a four-day weekend. That could mean a little more time for writing resolutions, but for many, it also means more time for sex.

Researchers and our friends at Trojan report that the Christmas-New Year's period marks an annual spike in sexual activity and conceptions (though I'm guessing it's not just Christians having more sex and getting pregnant).

They list the big contributors to this trend as leisure time, alcohol and partying, and New Year's resolutions to have kids. For those in the last category, we hope 2009 brings you a healthy pregnancy and birth. For those who aren't planning to have children right this minute but who do have some extra holiday helpings of sex, we hope you'll contribute to that jump in condom sales—or use another effective method of contraception.

Happy New Year from all of us at The National Campaign!

Note from the blogkeeper: Today's post by Jennifer Drake is in response to yesterday's post by Bill Albert. Do you have a reaction to what Bill said? To Jennifer's rebuttal? Let's hear what you have to say!

So is it the flippancy with which Jenna seems to answer the question about marriage, or our judgment about women and men in this industry that troubles us the most?

I ask because we typically don't hear the same opinions about the Jolie-Pitt family, which is now up to six kids... and zero wedding rings. Perhaps it's our perception that this is a healthy, wealthy (!) family with two successful, financially stable, and responsible parents. Criticism of Ms. Jameson's career choice aside, she has no doubt made a living for herself and carved out her own place in pop culture, much like "Brangelina." She's not married, but her child's father is one of the most successful MMA fighters in the business today. Chances are they're not struggling financially.

This is a thirty-something woman with a couple of marriages and even more life experiences under her belt, who according to some accounts may have badly wanted this pregnancy. Should her (former?) career/reputation automatically exclude her from the possibility of raising a kid, and all of the warm fuzzies that come along with having your own family? Or her marital status for that matter, when to our knowledge she has a supportive partner? As my dad likes to put it, "We all got issues," so I wouldn't count her to be any less ready to be a parent than Angelina "I-wear-a-vial-of-my-husband's-blood-around my-neck" Jolie. I'm just sayin'.

And perhaps we could have found a picture of Jenna that is less...well, just less. Tito Ortiz is much better looking anyway :)

infoMania, a Current TV show that recaps each week's glut of online, print, and televised media, features a recurring segment written by and starring the brilliant Sarah Haskins. The Target Women series lampoons how media and marketing attempt to reach women. Having already taken on suffrage, yogurt, and botox, Haskins's most recent episode, Target Women: Birth Control, calls into question why ads for hormonal BC are all about period control and managing PMS symptoms and never about sex or preventing pregnancy.

Enjoy the video (and all of the other Target Women clips) and let us know what you think commercials about contraception should be saying.

 My brother teaches at an inner-city middle school and his 8th graders are currently in the throes of their "reproductive system" unit.  One thing the students are doing is caring for baby dolls or flour sack babies in order to simulate parenthood - they have to carry them, feed them, nap them, and "basically parent them for an entire week."  He says it's really gratifying (and cute!) to see these normally tough kids become protective and parental.  "They're taking it so seriously!  They're all bugging out about how much work it is to take care of a baby." 

He also told me that one teacher showed the old Molly Ringwald movie For Keeps - about a teen couple that has a baby and how their lives change drastically as a result.  He reports that the kids "are more freaked out about what life looked like in the 80s than they are about the idea of becoming teen parents."  Ha!  Note to 8th graders:  Big hair isn't forever.  A baby is.

On our first blog entry, we received a comment from Joi regarding adoption and teen moms:

I am a former high school teacher turned teen pregnancy presentor. Started a program 6.5 years ago talking to teens about the 3 options they face if they are in an unplanned pregnancy. Use this site quite a lot for facts, ideas, etc. Would like to know why adoption doesn't get much of a mention here?

Joi's comment is actually a pretty common one in our circle and every so often we are asked about the prevalence of adoption among teen moms.  While adoption is obviously another option for teens if they face an unplanned pregnancy, the fact is that less than 3% actually choose adoption - fewer than 12,000 each year.  In the absence of government statistics on adoption, and the small number of adoptions that occur, research on adoption, including the reasons for adoption and consequences of adoption (for both mom and baby) is rare.

So, while movies such as Juno might suggest that adoption is a common alternative to teen pregnancy, most teenagers decide to keep their baby and take on the daunting task of raising a child themselves at a very young age.