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A new report from the National Center for Health Statistics shows that women in the U.S. had a record number of babies in 2007 - 4.32 million. This is the highest number of births ever registered in the country. Some of this is due to the increasing population, but it's also due to increasing pregnancy rates. Women are having 2.1 children in their lifetimes, the highest rate since the 1970's. The report highlights a couple of trends that are causing concern among health professionals. Specifically, after 15 years of decline, teen pregnancy rates have increased for the second year in a row to 42.5 births per 1,000 females age 15 to 19 in 2007, up from 41.9 in 2006. The number of unmarried women having babies also rose, accounting for almost 40 percent of all births in 2007.
What is going on? More research is needed and the causes are not entirely understood. But two factors which many experts believe may contribute to this situation are 1) a lack of education about family planning options, and 2) a lack of access to contraception due to increasing costs and declining abilities to pay. Fortunately, CycleBeads can help with both of these factors. As a fertility awareness-based family planning option, it reaches women who might not be interested in hormonal birth control or options that require resupply. It also educates women and empowers them with information about how their bodies work. As the least expensive family planning option available, CycleBeads can also help women who need effective family planning without the expense.
Read the rest of this newsletter to see how CycleBeads can help address these issues.
Sincerely,
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CycleBeads Reach New Users Many health care providers are using CycleBeads to reach out to women in their communities. As one provider in California told us:
We have found that having CycleBeads allows us to send people out into different communities and actually reach women that otherwise wouldn't be getting family planning services. They are a great tool for reaching women and talking to them in a way that is neither condescending nor over their heads.
A 2008 study in the journal Contraception shows that CycleBeads helps introduce women that previously were using no method of family planning at all. Researchers found that more than half the women who selected CycleBeads had never used family planning before and almost all of the women who chose CycleBeads had not been using contraception in the 3 months prior to the study. Furthermore, contraceptive use in general increased by 8 percent in communities where the method was introduced. Read the study here.
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Inexpensive Birth Control In an article published in the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care, Dr. James Gribble of The Futures Group International addressed the issue that there is a widening gap between the cost of meeting family planning needs worldwide and the funding available to meet this need. According to the report, low cost, effective family planning methods like CycleBeads may be a solution to bridging this gap. In the U.S., the suggested price for CycleBeads is $13.95. Assuming just one year of use, this compares favorably to all other family planning options that are provided in a typical office visit or purchased over the counter. For instance, a year supply of the following birth control options on average costs: 12 cycles of the Pill: $360* 80 condoms: $100 4 Depo Provera shots: $200* * Health insurance may cover a portion of costs although co-payments of $5-$30 per treatment are typical. The most important factor in deciding on a birth control option is finding one that best meets a woman's needs. For women for whom cost is a key concern, CycleBeads are especially attractive.
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