Lynn health workers: Lowering teen birth rate means talking to teens, getting their trust

LYNN – Lynn has one of the highest teenage birth rates in Massachusetts, according to state statistics, but local adults who work with teens said more girls are weighing future goals against risking pregnancy.A statewide teen birth rate of 14 births for every 1,000 teenagers represents more than a 50 percent decline in teen births since 1989, according to state Public Health numbers cited by the Massachusetts Alliance for Teen Pregnancy.Readily available education and contraception contributed to the birth drop, according to the Alliance, but the reason behind a multi-year decline in Lynn teen births is more complicated, said Lynn Community Health Center representatives.Lynn ranks eighth among Massachusetts cities in 2011 state statistics detailing teenage births. But the city recorded 158 for every 1,000 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 years old in 2001 compared to 119 in 2011.Center Director Lori Berry said changes in birth rates measured over a 10-year period underscore the work local organizations are doing to reduce teenage pregnancy.?It?s hard to know causes and changes but the long-term perspective is that the work we do at the Center with Girls Inc., YMCA, Boys and Girls Club and school-based health clinics – all of these things matter,” Berry said.Since it opened last October, the center?s teen walk-in clinic has attracted teenage girls – and boys – with questions that go beyond pregnancy, contraception and sexually transmitted diseases.A center health provider and family planner sit down with teens who walk into the clinic.?We take time to sit there and go through everything including what is a healthy relationship and not making decisions under pressure,” said nurse practitioner Julie Chan.Girls Inc. and the center have worked together for several years finding ways to reduce teen birth rates. Center nurse manager Leanne McDermott said a traveling medical van operated by North Shore Medical Center provided health care services to nearly 1,200 teenagers a year before it ceased operation.McDermott said Girls Inc.?s teen health ambassadors talk to their peers about pregnancy-related subjects, including contraception, but they also broaden the conversations to cover depression and anxiety.?We?re trying to recruit a few teen boys to be ambassadors,” she said.Chan said teenagers walking into the center?s clinic include youth referred to the Union Street facility by other teens. She said the number of teenagers coming to the clinic is gradually increasing.The opportunity to talk about family planning and contraception is not the clinic?s only purpose and not the long-term focus of the work done by youth organizations across Lynn, Berry said.?The bigger story is aspirations for a future: That?s what helps young women postpone parenthood; it is helping young girls imagine a future,” she said.