Safe Motherhood Introduction to Sexually Transmitted Diseases
One of the keys to prevention is caring
The purpose of this resource is to help prospective mothers and fathers, and anyone else who is interested to learn a little about themselves and hopefully to enable them to avoid getting a sexually transmitted disease including AIDS. Sexually transmitted diseases have become a little less common in the general population during the past decade but they still remain at epidemic proportions among adolescents. One in fourteen US teens will get an STD by the time they graduate from high school.compared to one in seven in 1994, yet the USA remains the most inflicted nation with STD rates, Europe, Africa and the Asian continents have also alarmingly high rates of STDs.
The diseases that are shown in this resource all have two things in common. The first is that they are all spread by unprotected sex. The other is that they are all preventable. If you are not having sex, you will not get or spread STDs. The exception to this is that certain diseases including AIDS and hepatitis can be spread by injecting drug users who share needles and from mother's to their newborn children..
Just learning about these diseases will not necessarily protect you from getting an STD including HIV disease but it can influence a young person not to have sex or to use a condom if she or he does.
AIDS and STD's need education
Getting the message of AIDS and STDs to the prospective Mums and Dads is one of our foremost responsibilities. The message has to be clear, accurate and effective. This online resouce can only be part of a more comprehensive health program that should be taught in schools at the earliest possible grade and at home with a strong involvement of the parents. This website feels that STD/HIV education should be provided to children before they put themselves at risk. This means educating them before high school and in some cases before the junior high school level. Parents and teachers are probably the most sensitive to the teens (and sub-teens) developmental stages and cultural backgrounds. Our kids need a supportive environment.
WARNING:
There is explicitness in this message. There needs be greater emphasis and accent on learning what these diseases look like and how they are and are not transmitted. Some people will not like the section on the use of condoms. The message of abstinence is emphasized throughout this online book as the only true way of avoiding STDs and HIV disease but well over fifty percent of students have had sex before they graduate from high school and they must be taught to protect themselves.Our children's best protection against AIDS and STDs is knowledge.
Anatomy and Physiology of the Sexual Organs