SATURDAY, July 21 (HealthDay News) — Planning ahead before pregnancy helps new moms give their babies the best possible start in life, experts say. If you have a chronic medical condition, talk to your doctor about the health risks of pregnancy and about which prescription medications you can still take during pregnancy. It's also important to tell your doctor about any family history of hereditary disorders before you start planning a pregnancy. Medical information changes rapidly and while Yahoo and its content providers make efforts to update the content on the site, some information may be out of date. No health information on Yahoo, including information about herbal therapies and other dietary supplements, is regulated or evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and therefore the information should not be used to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease without the supervision of a medical doctor. read more

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Only a few short months into her senior year of high school in 2004, Jennifer Stone of Marietta realized the unthinkable she was pregnant. According to a report by the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization with a focus on sexual and reproductive health issues worldwide, teenage pregnancy rates and birthrates declined during the 1990s to record low levels. The percentage of births to local teen mothers was 16 percent of all births, but in 2005, the numbers had dropped to 10 percent, said Kathy Boersma, director of the Community Action Family Health Services, 696 Wayne St. Family Health Services offers women full reproductive health services, prenatal care, the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) nutrition program, counseling, family planning information and tests for sexually transmitted diseases. Stone returned to school at the Washington County Career Center to complete high school. read more

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The government wants to bring teenage conception rates down Young mothers and fathers are to be given better access to contraception as part of a government drive to cut teenage pregnancy rates. Families Minister Beverley Hughes said teenage pregnancy rates were being tackled, but more needed to be done to target the “isolation” suffered by many young parents. Under the plans, access to contraception for young mothers and fathers will be improved “to prevent repeat, unplanned pregnancies”. Young parents and their children are more likely to suffer problems with health as well as being more likely to drop out of school than their peers, government research shows. Figures also reveal the children of teenage mothers are more likely to become young parents themselves. read more

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