How do accidental pregnancies occur

Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Unintended Pregnancy. Minus Related Pages. Get E-mail Updates. To receive email updates about this page, enter your email address: Email Address. What's this? Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.

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You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link. It was noted as well that 65 percent of deliveries of unintended pregnancies were paid for by Medicaid, as opposed to 35 percent of planned births. My freshman year of college, someone handed me a button that proclaimed, "Sex education is birth control. Since , the first year in which the National Survey of Family Growth was conducted, there has been no statistically significant change in the overall number of unintended births that occur each year.

To bring this number down, a good first step might be the one that seems easiest to carry out. Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Popular Latest. The Atlantic Crossword. Sign In Subscribe. There are , babies born each year to mothers who believed their coming into existence was a statistical improbability.

Although there are plenty of forms of contraception that work very effectively, there can be errors. Condoms can break, and birth control pills sometimes fail. The pill is Other forms of contraception, like the shot, the patch, and the implant, are all very effective when used perfectly, too.

However, if you forget to have one of these methods renewed in time, it can result in an unplanned pregnancy. Even when any of these methods are used completely perfectly, there will be a few cases where they still fail. Once you take a free pregnancy test which confirms your pregnancy, the very first thing you should do is make an appointment with your primary care doctor or your OB-GYN or with our PRC Clinics. Our PRC Clinics will help you figure out how far along you are and whether you have any health conditions that could be risky for your pregnancy.

You'll also have an ultrasound and receive plenty of other pregnancy information. There are also some important lifestyle changes to make when you find out you're pregnant. If you use drugs, drink, or smoke, quit right away to prevent harm to the baby. Start taking a prenatal vitamin, too. The vitamin should contain mcg of folic acid, which reduces the risk of birth defects and is very important in the first few weeks that you're pregnant. Avoid things that are harmful during pregnancy, like cat litter, raw meat, and seafood with a high mercury content.

It's essential that you take care of yourself physically and mentally during a pregnancy. An unplanned pregnancy can be scary and stressful, and it may be helpful to come in and talk with us.

We have referrals to local counselors who can help you. This can aid with managing your stress to keep you as healthy as possible. It can be very easy to focus on everything that stresses you out, including financial or relationship worries. However, try to surround yourself with supportive people and distance yourself from anyone who judges or criticizes you. Almost half of pregnancies in the U.

You can also join a support group to connect with people who can relate to you and provide you with pregnancy information, or you can simply come talk to us.