Pregnancy, single sailor-mom numbers rising

[unhappycamper]

Pregnancy, single sailor-mom numbers rising
By Kate Wiltrout - The Virginian-Pilot
Posted : Friday Oct 12, 2007 5:56:00 EDT

NORFOLK, Va. — Women have never played a bigger role in the Navy. They fuel and fly fighter jets, they stand watch on the bridges of warships, and they build bombs.

They also have babies.

Reconciling those roles is a challenge for Navy brass. During wartime, sailors must be ready to deploy at a moment’s notice — something pregnant women can’t do and single parents can’t do easily.

Compounding the issue is a rise in the number of single mothers in uniform and concern about unplanned pregnancies among enlisted sailors.

The Navy’s most recent survey found 14 percent of all women in the Navy were single mothers in 2005, up from 7 percent in 2001 and 11 percent in 2003. Fourteen percent isn’t unprecedented — similar statistics were found in 1989 and 1999 — but military officials say they don’t know the reason for the recent increase.

The pregnancy and parenthood survey also found that almost two-thirds of enlisted women who became pregnant in the previous year had not planned to do so. That’s higher than the overall U.S. unintended pregnancy rate of 49 percent — and well above the Defense Department’s target rate of 30 percent.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/ap_pregnantnavy_071011/

[MADem]

1. ,,,,they don’t know the reason for the recent increase

Gee, fucking without birth control might have something to do with it!!!

It could also be fundy cuts to boot camp curricula on the subject, too....funny how the rise matches the BushCo admin...

[Thothmes]

2. reason

Doubt you can lay this at the feet of any particular administration. Remember lots of female navy personnel getting knocked up during the Clinton years. A two hour class on anything in boot camp is about as useful as a bucket of rewarmed spit.

[MADem]

3. You most certainly can. The trend is onward and upward, per the article.

I'd say they need to look at cuts in Single Sailor programs, Family Service and Support Center funding, clinic support at the installation level, as well as changes to the boot camp curriculum. You may pooh-pooh these things, but they do make a difference. And money is being cut left and right from USN and USAF to support USA and USMC. Those cuts come out of all programs.

The doctor shortage (many are over in Iraq) might have a slight effect as well, requiring females to wait longer between regular exams.

The single-parent issue and unintended pregnancies WERE a priority when Boorda was CNO. They aren't now. That could very well have an impact. I wouldn't dismiss it.

[rakeeb]

4. I wouldn't put it on a lack of training in boot camp,

nor would I say that a conscious choice to not use birth control results in "unintended" pregnancy. Unplanned? Sure. Rolling the dice? Absolutely.
While I can't even guess why the numbers got that high in 1989 and 1999, I would venture to say that a part of the recent rise might be that some single moms (and some dual military married) might just want a break from deployment without having to get out and have an "unintended" pregnancy.
I have seen more than a few of those, but I seriously doubt that reason would have had played into the peak in numbers in 89 or 99.

[MADem]

5. It's never any ONE thing. It's a coordinated strategy.

Each effort serves to reduce the total number. And when you slack off on any one, or several, you see backsliding.

I worked this issue under Boorda, I am not talking from theory, here. Towards the end of the decade, there was a funding shortfall for a number of nice-to-have "people programs." Boorda was dead by then, Johnson had other priorities, the working (as opposed to planning) arm of BUPERS was shuffled off to TN, and USN priorities for Congressional funding were heavily skewed towards operational, not personnel or QOL, prioirities.

I've seen plenty of fundy COs at overseas locales make it hard for females to return to CONUS for termination procedures, too. There have been instances where CNO level intervention became necessary. That only worked when the Sailor was savvy enough to gripe high enough up the chain before the too-late date.

There are a number of influencers that can contribute to this trend, but getting four lousy months off of a deployment (with a punitive comeback tour, often as not, if one decides to continue on in service and not get a Convenience of the Government discharge) is hardly a motivator. The one year deferment is recent, and doesn't apply to the females cited in these figures.

The supervisor who 'sees' someone getting pregnant to 'get out of deployment' doesn't see that same Sailor getting a shitty, career-screwing job on a lousy ship the second their four month 'reprieve' is up, because the detailer is irritated at having to priority fill their slot and is sending a bit of a message.

[Captain Hilts]

6. They're 'women', not 'females'. 'Females' includes dogs, cats, trees, etc. nt

[MADem]

8. No, when you are discussing gender issues at the Pentagon, they're males and females.

Your well-meaning and slightly didactic nitpicking is in error. It's policy to prefer the term.

The logic, I believe, is that it's less "personal."

Females also include humans. FWIW.

And it isn't an insult. Any more than the term "male Sailor" is.


Examples, in the event that you "disbelieve" me:

http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=28415

ESG 7 Commander Mentors, Encourages Female Sailors Aboard Harpers Ferry
Story Number: NNS070320-19
Release Date: 3/20/2007 5:45:00 PM


By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Adam R. Cole, Task Force 76 Public Affairs

USS HARPERS FERRY, At Sea (NNS) -- Commander Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 7 Rear Adm. Carol M. Pottenger, the first woman to command an expeditionary strike group, visited USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49) from March 14 through 17.

While the visit was a chance to emphasize professional and personal development, as well as underline the ship’s role in meeting operational needs throughout the region, Pottenger met with female Sailors to encourage them to continue to progress in their careers and lives. ...

http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=32549
Three Female Sailors Make Chief
Story Number: NNS071012-01
Release Date: 10/12/2007 9:26:00 AM


By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Michelle Burnside, Navy Operational Support Center Tulsa Public Affairs

TULSA, Okla. (NNS) -- Three female Sailors were pinned as chief petty officers (CPOs) during a ceremony at the Navy Operational Support Center (NOSC) Tulsa on Sept. 22.

Chief Personnel Specialist (AW) Christie Cole, Chief Religious Programs Specialist Tracy Scott, and Chief Legalman Loucinda Hicks of Chief Induction Class 114 were pinned by family members and received their chief covers by their sponsors.

[Captain Hilts]

9. Used as a modifier it's fine, as a noun, it's not. 'Female' sailor is fine. nt

[MADem]

10. Well, when you become the CNO, you go ahead and change the policy.

Until then, it's an opinion, and a nitpicking one, IMO.

And we know what those are like.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Captain Hilts]

13. The terms 'females' and 'women' are not comparable.

I've lived in the navy community all my life and women - dependents and naval personnel - HATE being called 'females' so long as men are called 'men'.

It's just about playing fair.

A summary:

men - women
male - female
gentlemen - ladies.

I really don't look to the navy for insight or accurate or sensitive use of language, particularly in reference to gender. I know women who fly F-18s and knew the first woman to make the rank of captain, USNA graduates and they don't like being referred to by the noun 'females'. If they referred to "Officers and males" of the USS Whatever, then it wouldn't be so bad, but they don't.

I don't think women in the military really care if men don't think the way women are referred to is a problem.

[MADem]

14. For all you know, you could be didactically lecturing a Navy female.

You really don't know, and I am not about to tell you.

What I will tell you is this: I spent my entire LIFE in the Navy--as a dependent (though that term is out of fashion now) and as a Sailor and for the vast majority of my decades-long career as a commissioned officer.

You must be pretty old if you know the first woman to make the rank of Captain. She made that rank in 1943--not only was she the first 0-6, she was the first commissioned officer as well:


Captain Mildred H. McAfee, USNR, Director of the Navy's Women's Reserve (right)
Is congratulated by Rear Admiral Randall Jacobs, Chief of Naval Personnel, upon her promotion to the rank of Captain, 13 November 1943.
She was promoted under the provisions of the new Women's Reserve Bill passed by Congress earlier in the month.


So I really don't need your exhortations, or profanities, for that matter. You are sharing an opinion, and it isn't one held by me or anyone (male OR female) that I associated with in the hallowed halls of the Pentagon or throughout the entire fleet. Gee, I know female pilots too, and female SWO's, and female chaplains, and they never expressed this concern to me. Their main concern was that they weren't given shit on the job, that they received the same parity in terms of opportunity and promotion, and that their paychecks arrived on time.

You may not look to the Navy for insight on language, and that's fine. I am talking about useage. And that useage, as I have demonstrated, is prevalent throughout the fleet, in formal correspondence and other documents, press releases and in everyday useage. And it is used by males AND females. That's how it is.

The term FEMALE is NOT used in USN terminology as a contrast to the word MEN. That's in your head, but not in any documentation, as you can plainly see if you peruse the links I provided.

[Captain Hilts]

15. No, she was a WAVE, not a USN officer.

But, I DO know one of the women in the very first batch of WAVE officers - Eleanor Roosevelt approved the list. She and her colleagues spent WWII up Nebraska Ave. breaking the code.

I associate with a lot of navy men, active duty and retired, and they often refer to 'women' as 'females'. This usage is rarely heard outside of the military. The military needs to catch up.

Again, it's OKAY to refer to 'female SWOs', 'female chaplains', etc. . But 'females' instead of 'women' is a usage the nearly extinct outside of the military.

[MADem]

16. She was commissioned in the USN reserves.

An act of Congress, Public Law 689 (aka the Naval Reserve Act of 1938) enabled it. It was a "real" commission, with retirement benefits based on years in service. The act created the WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) program. All that Congress did was change existing law to ENABLE the induction of women. However, her commission was no less "real" except maybe to people of your mindset.

Why don't you do a little research on the Women's Armed Services Integration Act, too, while you're at it? You probably don't know much about that either.

The fact that you are actually, with no embarrassment or trepidation at all, trying to say that women who served as enlisted or commissioned personnel under the volunteer auspices of the WAVE program weren't "real" tells me EVERYTHING I need to know about your level of understanding of this entire issue. You're blowing smoke. And your level of actual knowledge is wanting.

I guess those Yeomanette (F)'s were just indulging in a hobby? It would follow that those Tuskeegee airmen were 'fake' too?

I'm sorry, but the Congress of the United States, the Department of Defense, and the Department of the Navy don't agree with you on this assertion.....EITHER.

That's the most absurd post I've seen on any military thread, ever.

:eyes:

[Captain Hilts]

7. Could you be more tactless?

And lower income groups have more children than upper income groups, most naval personnel are in and from lower income groups. Any decline in these rates is the abberation.

[goddess40]

17. There they go again getting themselves pregnant

Last I heard it take two - one female one male - to make this happen.

Why might the women be getting pregnant - Back before the first Gulf invasion I had several military women in one of my classes at college and they chatted about how they'd get pregnant if they got called up, so that might be part of it. Although I don't see that as a huge part especially with this asshole in chief because since pregnancy only lasts nine months and this seems to be a never ending invasion having a kid is only a speed bump not a dead end on the road to endless deployments.