Pregnancy at Sea

It's a problem for the Navy. [Link]

About 15 percent of U.S. Navy sailors are female, and 14 percent of them are single mothers. Overall, 38 percent of all female sailors have children. Caring for a child is more difficult for a single mother, so the navy now gives all new mothers twelve months guaranteed work ashore. Until recently, new mothers only had four months of that, before they were again eligible for assignment to a ship at sea. At any given time, about 14 percent of female sailors are pregnant. It's lower (about 11 percent) for women at sea, and they are sent back to a shore job once they are about halfway through their pregnancy. This causes bad feelings on the ship, because some women openly admit to using the pregnancy to get out of finishing the cruise. This is made worse by the fact that a replacement is usually not available for months, or until the ship returns to port.

I think they should be given Norplant implants when deployed to sea. That way, there are no surprises. But i don't see it happening anytime soon.