--- title: Baby Simulator Program May Make Pregnancy More Likely: Study description: Schools that have infant simulator programs may actually make teenage girls more likely to become pregnant, according to a new study. canonical: https://time.com/4468871/school-baby-programs-teen-pregnancy/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-26T19:58:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T00:14:03.609Z article:section: Health og:title: Baby Simulator Programs May Make Girls More Likely To Get Pregnant: Study og:description: Girls enrolled in schools with baby simulator programs were 36% more likely to have a pregnancy by age 20 og:url: https://time.com/4468871/school-baby-programs-teen-pregnancy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39b9667e97d2fcd0/6988a3e0ab6d7706956ab09e/baby-simulator.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Child Development Class og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Baby Simulator Programs May Make Girls More Likely To Get Pregnant: Study twitter:description: Girls enrolled in schools with baby simulator programs were 36% more likely to have a pregnancy by age 20 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39b9667e97d2fcd0/6988a3e0ab6d7706956ab09e/baby-simulator.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Baby Simulator Programs May Make Girls More Likely To Get Pregnant, Study Says > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Aug 26, 2016 7:58 PM UTC  Students Sallie Norman, left, and Katie Osborne work with two infant simulators in Catherine Gray's Child Development class at Henderson County High in Henderson, Ky., on Oct. 6, 2011. Students Sallie Norman, left, and Katie Osborne work with two infant simulators in Catherine Gray's Child Development class at Henderson County High in Henderson, Ky., on Oct. 6, 2011. Mike Lawrence—The Gleaner/AP  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Aug 26, 2016 7:58 PM UTC Schools that have infant simulator programs, where students use dolls and classes to learn what having a baby is like, may actually make teenage girls more likely to become pregnant, according to a new Australian study. [The study](http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2816%2930384-1/fulltext), published in The Lancet, found that girls enrolled in schools with baby simulator programs were 36% more likely to have a pregnancy by age 20 than those enrolled in schools with standard curriculums. Of the girls enrolled in the program, 8% had at least one birth by age 20, compared to 4% in the control group; and 9% of the girls in the program had at least one abortion compared to 6% in the control group. “We were very surprised” Sally Brinkman, lead author and associate professor at Telethon Kids Institute at University of Western Australia [told ABC News](http://abcnews.go.com/Health/baby-simulator-programs-make-teen-girls-pregnant-study/story?id=41642211). “It’s one thing to get results to say it doesn’t work, it’s another to get results that does the opposite.” The study tracked more than 2,800 teen girls, age 13 to 15 years old, at 57 schools in Australia, following them until age 20. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4468871/school-baby-programs-teen-pregnancy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4468871/school-baby-programs-teen-pregnancy/"},"headline":"Baby Simulator Programs May Make Girls More Likely To Get Pregnant, Study Says","datePublished":"2016-08-26T19:58:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:14:03.609Z","description":"Girls enrolled in schools with baby simulator programs were 36% more likely to have a pregnancy by age 20","url":"https://time.com/4468871/school-baby-programs-teen-pregnancy/","keywords":["Research","women","Pregnancy","Education"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39b9667e97d2fcd0/6988a3e0ab6d7706956ab09e/baby-simulator.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39b9667e97d2fcd0/6988a3e0ab6d7706956ab09e/baby-simulator.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Child Development Class","caption":"Students Sallie Norman, left, and Katie Osborne, in Catherine Gray's Child Development class, at Henderson County High, work in class with two infant simulators, in Henderson, Ky., Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011. 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