Luna County teen pregnancy rates have been among the top three for counties in New Mexico since 2000. Luna County now ranks sixth according to the Luna County Health Council. Rates have dropped to 49.6 teen births per 1,000 females aged 15-17, according to 2006 statistics.

The Health Council takes a variety of approaches to fight the ever-present problem. As a source of information for schools and families, the council works with the latest information and methods to increase sexual education.

"With any kind of public health issue there's usually not one single intervention that can work successfully on its own. I think it's the combination of a lot of efforts, a key force on something like teen pregnancy is that community, schools and families all work together," said Jamie Michael, Chair for the Luna County Health Council's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Committee. "This has been an issue that Luna County has been dealing with so long that they really worked hard on exploring and finding a variety of ways to combat this issue instead of trying to narrowly focus on one or two interventions."

Decreasing teen birth rates is not only intended to reduce the cost to taxpayers per child — $86 in New Mexico according to "The Public Costs of Teen Childbearing" — but also, more importantly, to improve the health of children being born. According to Michael, teen mothers are less likely to receive pre-natal care. Pre-natal care is directly related to birth outcomes, as children being born may have risk factors of which doctors were not aware.
 

Early pregnancies may also contribute to problems down the road, as Community Health Promotion Specialist Elizabeth Burr explained: "Statistically, (among) children of teen moms, girls are more likely to be teen moms themselves and boys more likely to end up in prison."

The committee offers its services as a place of information for schools and families.

"The Health Council has served as a resource for the schools and has been able to provide them with sources of where to find the best practice, evidence-based models," said Michael. "I know the schools do a lot of work on their own. They're very focused on these issues."

Simply talking to children is a major problem for many parents.

"We've found that often parents are reluctant to do it (talk to kids) out of embarrassment or they don't know what to say," said Burr. "We have kids telling us that they want the knowledge, they want the information... we need to find ways to get it out to the parents and them."

Michael added: "Something we're going to try and start exploring: what does work with families? How do you provide families with resources so they become the people who deliver the public health message?"

Statistical data has its limitations, up-to-date information is often unavailable. Data from the state is usually about two years behind, according to Michael.

"I want people to be proud that Luna County is decreasing, but I want everybody to remember we're still in the top for the state and that we all still need to work together to find programs that will help us successfully decrease these numbers," said Jamie Michael, Chair for the Luna County Health Council's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Committee. "Until we're ranked last in the state, I don't think we should stop."

Parents, children and expecting parents are encouraged to contact Healthy Start at (575)546-9254.