Aiming to reduce teen pregnancy in Berks County – Reading Eagle

When 16-year-old Zamarys Rivera gave birth to her daughter Sophia, her entire life changed.
“Being a teen mom is quite difficult and quite stressful,” said Rivera, now 19. “Waking up between of the night and checking out school in the early morning is quite hard.”Co-County Health Programs unveiled a brand-new initiative to avoid teen pregnancy called Berks Teens Matter at a press conference Wednesday at the Santander Arena.Rivera and fellow Checking out Higher School student and teen mother Cristal Santiago, 19, shared their stories.The event was held when it come to the National Day to avoid Teen Pregnancy.Berks Teens Matter aims to minimize teen pregnancy by 40 percent by 2022 via fact-based programing, education and services, said Co-County Health Programs Executive Director Carolyn Bazik.The initiative is utilizing services that have actually helped reduced teen pregnancy speeds about the country such as social media campaigns, encouraging implanted contraceptives and increased sex education.Co-County Health Programs has actually teamed up along with 30 others regional teams for the effort, including the Berks County Intermediate Unit, the Daniel Torres Hispanic Center, the Checking out School District and the Wyomissing Foundation.Bazik said the partners will certainly help in raising teen-pregnancy awareness, educating teens and the parents of teens.Berks Teens Matter will certainly job to make certain that regional healthiness providers will certainly have actually youth-friendly facilities to give teens along with post and access to contraception.Berks Teens Matter project manager Jen Could said teen pregnancies in the claim are declining, however there is still job to be done.”Teen birthrates have actually declined and that ought to be applauded,” Could said. “however there are areas, pockets of Pennsylvania, where the speeds are still also high, and among those sections is Berks County.”Nineteen in every 1,000 teen girls in Pennsylvania gave birth in 2014, Could said.That is reduced compared to the national standard of 24.Berks is nearly double the statewide price at 36 every 1,000.Checking out (67.8) is regarding 3.5 times better compared to the claim average.For Berks and Checking out females ages 18 and 19, the speeds are 43.5 and 89.3, respectively, according to May.Teen pregnancy leads to social and medical pitfalls for the youngsters of teen parents, Could said.Contact Anthony Orozco: 610-371-5015 or aorozco@readingeagle.com.