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East MidlandsYou are in: Inside Out > East Midlands > Teenage Pregnancy ![]() Aspley: highest teen pregnancy in Europe Teenage PregnancyFor years one part of the East Midlands has had the highest teenage pregnancy rate not just in the UK, but the whole of western Europe. Now a Task Force has been set up to tackle the problem.
Teenaged girls are three times more likely to get pregnant in Aspley Nottingham than anywhere else. Teen mumLynsey Leverton discovered she was pregnant at 15. ![]() Lynsey: pregnant at 15 She says it took months to come to terms with the idea of being a mum. "I think I am ready now, but not at first. But I didn’t have the heart to get rid of the baby." Her mum also took some time to reconcile herself to the pregnancy. She was a teen mum too and is about to become a grandma at the age of 33. Pilot projectLynsey is one of the first mums in Nottingham to be monitored by a specialist team of nurses from pregnancy until her baby is two years old. The pilot project is called "The Family Nurse Partnership Programme" and means highly trained nurses develop relationships with young mums and their extended family. The idea is to guide inexperienced teenagers to adopt healthier lifestyles, improve their parenting skills and become self sufficient. With the right support it’s hoped teen mums can be helped to break a pattern that can repeat through generations. StatisticsIn Aspley, Nottingham the statistics are relentless – one in eight teenagers are falling pregnant; last year there were 217 births to teenage mums. ![]() Dr Gates: Sex education alone can't solve problems Despite years of attempts by politicians and health professionals the messages don’t seem to be getting through. Dr Peter Gates from Nottingham University has been researching the phenomenon of teenage pregnancy and believes the issue can’t be tackled by the sex education classes alone. "It’s about the high levels of unemployment, the low levels of qualifications; it’s about the difficulty of living in the area, the high level of poverty. Statistics From the research...Just over half the interviewees had mothers who themselves had babies when they were in their teens. More than eight out of ten are no longer with the fathers of their children. More than 1/3 of the young mums say they would have waited to have children. Fewer than two in 10 are planning to have more children now. More than three quarters felt their sex and relationships education had been ineffective. A quarter were having sex at 14. More than half at 15. Fewer than one in ten thought they could get pregnant. Source: University of Nottingham research "It’s all those factors. To be honest there’s a lot of kids in Aspley who don’t feel worthwhile, who don’t feel there’s a lot to look forward and if that’s the case why not go out and have sex? "I think that’s what we see happening." FilmDr Gates’ team interviewed 50 teenage mums in Nottingham. Their research formed the basis for a film called "Do you really want to be in my position?" which is about the real life experiences of young parents. It's now being shown in classrooms around the county New taskforceMeanwhile a new teenage pregnancy taskforce was launched in January 2009 chaired by Nottingham North MP Graham Allen. "Teenage pregnancy is everybody’s business… "Clearly the traditional remedies of better sex education, better contraception aren’t doing the job. "So we’re adding to that mix by going into 11-16 life skills teaching young people, well before they even think about sexual activity, about the choices they can make in life.” What everyone agrees on is that there are no quick fixes, no short-term solutions. last updated: 20/02/2009 at 12:16 SEE ALSOYou are in: Inside Out > East Midlands > Teenage Pregnancy |
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