`Unprotected sex` likelier with baby daddies

Washington DC: As per a recent study, young moms are likelier to have unprotected sex with baby daddies, increasing their risk of repeated pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

Researchers followed 171 women ages 15 to 24 in Baltimore, Maryland who had at least one sexual partner after becoming mothers, Fox news reported.

When the women had sex in what they colloquially called "baby daddy" relationships, they were more than 12 times more likely to skip condoms for vaginal sex and more than three times as likely to have unprotected anal intercourse.

Researchers have heard qualitatively for years that condom use is minimal in sexual relationships where there is a shared child, said lead researcher Michele Decker of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

And indeed, she added, in this study, "condom nonuse for both vaginal and anal intercourse was more common in those relationships."

The men who had children with the women also tended to be more likely to have a sexually transmitted disease, a history of using intravenous drugs or dealing, and prior gang involvement - but all of these differences were small and might have been due to chance.

The findings suggest that young mothers who have sex with the fathers of their children may be at increased risk for sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancies, the researchers concluded.

The study appears in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.