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With the increasing numbers of service women and the expansion of roles available to women within the military, understanding the epidemiology of pregnancy is important for both the health of U.S. service women and the readiness of the U.S. fighting force, two closely related issues. Between 2012 – 2016, 344,536 unique women of childbearing potential (WOCBP) served at least 1 day in the military, and of those, 132,466 spend at least 1 day as a recruit trainee. Of the 224,718 WOCBP who served at any time in 2016, 13.1% had at least one pregnancy-related event during that year. A “pregnancy-related event,” refers to a health care encounter (visit) for which the record contains a diagnosis code for either pregnancy or a positive pregnancy test. In 2016, the highest prevalence of pregnancy-related events was among service women 30-34 years of age (16.8%) and among senior enlisted women (13.7%). Pie chart displays depicting the information. The annual prevalence of pregnancy-related events decreased slightly, from 14.2% in 2012 to 13.1% in 2016. Line plot graph displays this information. FINDINGS • Prevalence of pregnancy-related events was approximately evenly distributed among the race/ethnicity categories and military occupation groups. • A slightly higher percentage of WOCBP in the Army (14.5%) had pregnancy-related events compared to WOCBP in the other services. • A higher percentage of women who were married (21.4%) had a pregnancy-related event, compared with those in the single (5.7%) or “other” (8.8) categories. • Only 0.2% of women who served during a recruit training period in any given year had a pregnancy-related event. Access the full report in the November 2017 MSMR (Vol. 24, No. 11). Go to www.Health.mil/MSMR. Graphic on infographic shows a pregnant service member.

With the increasing numbers of service women and the expansion of roles available to women within the military, understanding the epidemiology of pregnancy is important for both the health of U.S. service women and the readiness of the U.S. fighting force, two closely related issues. This infographic documents pregnancies among female service members, active component, U.S. Armed Forces from 2012 – 2016.

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