One in Five Children Born to Teen Mothers not the First Child: CDC

About one in five children born to a teen mother is a repeat birth, said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a statement. A second birth is a second or more pregnancy before age 20.

The trend of repeat births remains despite recent data suggesting that teenage pregnancy has fallen over the years.

Recently, CDC  said that the teen birth rate dropped 11 percent for women aged 15-17 years, and 7 percent for women aged 18-19 years. During the early 90s, the teen birth rate was around 60 births per 1,000 teens. Although teen birth rate in the country has dropped, it still remains one of the highest among the developed nations.

Teenage pregnancy can lead to many complications for both the mother and the child, and children who are born second or third to teenage mothers carry additional risks of being underweight or poorly developed.

"Teen birth rates in the United States have declined to a record low, which is good news. But rates are still far too high. Repeat births can negatively impact the mother's education and job opportunities as well as the health of the next generation. Teens, parents, health care providers, and others need to do much more to reduce unintended pregnancies," said Tom Frieden, M.D., Director CDC.

In the year 2010, about 365,000 teens between ages 15 and 19 gave birth, of which 67,000 or about 18.3 percent had repeat births.

The data also showed that repeat births varied among ethnicities, with teen birth being highest among American Indian/Alaska natives with 21.6 percent, to lowest among non-Hispanic whites with 14.8 percent. Repeat births were more prevalent in Texas with 22 percent.

About 91 percent of all girls who had repeat births had sexual activity during the postpartum period and just 22 percent among them used protection that's considered to be "most effective", the agency said in a news release.