November 2014

by Kweli Rashied-Henry

During my teenage years, my girlfriends always provided good advice. From who to date and what outfit to wear to school, to what colleges to apply to and how to bargain shop. They did not have a say, however, in my figuring out when to have children. Planning for my reproductive future was always a tricky subject. Between talks with my dad about the consequences of being a teen mom, and the dirty looks given to my fellow students who got pregnant as teenagers, it was a distant goal and definitely not something I intended at a young age. However, there is far more talk today about reproductive life planning, especially among young adults.

Reproductive life planning is a readiness tool to help women and men of reproductive age develop and work towards their personal goals for having or not having children. Almost half of all pregnancies are unplanned – in North Carolina that is more than 50,000 pregnancies each year. A baby’s vital...