The role of women in society is changing very quickly and sexual attitudes have changed in parallel with this over the last thirty years. Earlier sexual experience results in more babies born to young girls which in turn increases the statistics for still-birth, prematurity and ‘poor quality’ births. Low-birth-weight babies are two to three times more likely to be born to such youngsters. The results of sexual promiscuity, with more than half of all married people admitting to having had an extramarital affair, and the considerable rise in premarital sexual activity have resulted in more VD, more cervical cancer and more unwanted pregnancies. At the most dramatic end of the scale AIDS kills hundreds of people a year in the West and genital herpes causes substantial sexual disability among millions.
About a third of all pregnancies in the UK have been calculated to be ‘unwanted’-at least at the time of conception. Young girls who get pregnant have a 20-50 per cent increased chance of having a low-birth-weight baby, which in turn can be associated with an increased mortality rate among the babies.
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