Nottingham pioneers teen pregnancy scheme

BBC Thursday, 5 May, 2005, 11:31 GMT 12:31 UK

Nottingham has the third highest rate of teenage conception in the country. Teenagers could be paired up with toddlers in nurseries in a scheme to reduce the number of teenagers falling pregnant.

Nottingham health chiefs are now set to look at a scheme piloted in London that gives young people time with toddlers combined with a programme of education on a range of issues related to safe sex.

The city's genito-urinary medicine clinic currently deals with up to 35,000 cases every year.
Nottingham has one of the highest rates of infection in the country. Rochdale recently had a baby born with syphilis.

* In 2000, 38,690 under 18 year olds in England became pregnant
* 44.8% of these ended in legal abortion
* 7,617 of these conceptions were to under 16s
* 54.5% of conceptions to under 16s ended in legal abortion

Source: Office for National Statistics 2000 as reported in Teenage Pregnancy and Parenthood: A review of reviews - Briefing summary Health Development Agency February 2003

The infant mortality rate for babies born to teenage mothers is more than 50% higher then the average, accounting for almost 400 deaths in 2000 (12% of all infant deaths). The infant mortality rate for babies born to mothers under the age of 18 is more than double the average, and there is also an increased risk of maternal mortality for this group. Source: DoH press release June 2002

England has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Europe - twice as high as Germany, three times as high as France and six times as high as the Netherlands.
Source: Teenage Pregnancy : a Social Exclusion Unit Report June 1999

..the good news is that rates are falling very slowly.