Teen Births and Teen Birth Spacing in Northwest Arkansas

Developing policies to address Arkansas’s maternal health crisis requires having clear information about what Arkansas mothers are experiencing on each step of the birthing journey. This infographic focuses on the first step of that journey — pre-pregnancy preparation — by assessing birth rates and birth spacing patterns among Arkansas teens.

ACHI analyzed birth records and health insurance claims data to determine the number and rate of births among females ages 12 through 19. We also analyzed teen birth rates by Northwest Arkansas counties and assessed birth spacing patterns among teens ages 14 through 19 who conceived more than one pregnancy.

Key Findings

• Between 2019 and 2021:
  • There were 52 births to females age 15 and under, 257 births to females ages 16-17, and 950 births to females ages 18-19.
  • The birth rates for those age groups were 3.2 births per 1,000 females age 15 and under, 33.4 births per 1,000 females ages 16-17, and 111.6 births per 1,000 females ages 18-19.
  • By county, Madison county had the highest birth rate among females ages 15-19 with 40.4 births per 1,000 females, followed by Carroll county with 36.3 births per 1,000 females, Washington county with 20.4 births per 1,000 females, and Benton county with 18.4 births per 1,000 females.
• Our birth spacing analysis found:
  • Among females who had a first birth between 2016 and 2018, 23.4% of 19-year-olds, 26.0% of 18-year-olds, 22.2% of 17-year-olds, 16.7% of 16-year-olds, 12.8% of 15-year-olds, and 18.2% of 14-year-olds conceived a second pregnancy within 18 months of their first pregnancy. The recommended spacing from giving birth to conceiving another pregnancy is at least 18 months.

The data sources for these analyses were Arkansas Department of Health birth records (for in-state births), the Arkansas Healthcare Transparency Initiative’s All-Payer Claims Database (for out-of-state births), and National Center for Health Statistics 2020 population estimates (for teen birth rates).

See more information about maternal and infant heath in Arkansas on our topic page.

References

¹ Osterman, M. J. K., Hamilton, B. E., Martin, J. A., Driscoll, A. K., & Valenzuela, C. P. (2023) Births: Final data for 2021. National Vital Statistics Report, 72(1), 1─53. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr72/nvsr72-01.pdf

² March of Dimes. How long should you wait before getting pregnant again? Accessed May 23, 2024. https://www.marchofdimes.org/find-support/topics/planning-baby/how-long-should-you-wait-getting-pregnant-again

³ Hutcheon, J. A., Nelson, H. D., Stidd, R., Moskosky, S., & Ahrens, K. A. (2019). Short interpregnancy intervals and adverse maternal outcomes in high-resource settings: An updated systematic review. Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, 33(1), O48─O59. https://doi.org/10.1111/ppe.12518

⁴ Blumenfeld, Y. J., Baer, R. J., Druzin, M. L., El-Sayed, Y. Y., Lyell, D. J., Faucett, A. M., Shaw, G. M., Currier, R. J., & Jelliffe-Pawlowski, L. L. (2014). Association between maternal characteristics, abnormal serum aneuploidy analytes, and placental abruption. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 211(2), 144.e1─144.e9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2014.03.027   

⁵ Rohde, R. L., Luong, L., Adjei Boakye, E., & Chang, J. J. (2020). Effect of interpregnancy interval after a first pregnancy complicated by placental abruption, on adverse maternal and fetal outcomes in a second pregnancy. The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, 33(22), 3809─3815. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767058.2019.1586878 

⁶ Weiss, A., Sela, H. Y., Rotem, R., Grisaru-Granovsky, S., & Rottenstreich, M. (2021). Recurrent short interpregnancy interval: Maternal and neonatal outcomes. European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, 264, 299─305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejogrb.2021.07.040

⁷ Gunawardana, L., Smith, G. D., Zammit, S., Whitley, E., Gunnell, D., Lewis, S., & Rasmussen, F. (2021). Pre-conception inter-pregnancy interval and risk of schizophrenia. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 199(4), 338─339. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.111.092916

⁸ Chen, I., Jhangri G. S., & Chandra, S. (2014). Relationship between interpregnancy interval and congenital anomalies. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 210(6), 564.e1─564.e8. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2014.02.002