The University of New South Wales interviewed 26 people across the country, including girls aged between 16-19 who had become pregnant, about their experiences, as well as older women who spoke about their knowledge of local practices.
Dr Christine Linhart from the University of New South Wales said in a statement that knowledge about contraception and reproductive health was quite low among the young women interviewed. For a lot of the young women the first physical symptoms of their pregnancy came as a surprise. It s not that they did not understand that sexual interactions would lead to pregnancy, it s just that wasn t a result that most of them had considered was going to happen, she said.