INFORMATION RESOURCES ON TEENAGE PREGNANCY

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Introduction

Teenage pregnancy is a significant public health issue in England. Teenage parents are prone to poor antenatal health, lower birth weight babies and higher infant mortality rates. Their health, and that of their children, is worse than average. Teenage mothers are less likely to finish their education, less likely to find a good job, and more likely to end up both as single parents and bringing up their children in poverty. The children themselves run a much greater risk of poor health, and have a much higher chance of becoming teenage mothers themselves.

The UK still has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in Western Europe, in England in 2007 over 40,000 women under the age of 18 became pregnant. There are over 3000 conceptions to women under the age of 18 in the East Midlands every year, approximately 600 of whom are under the age of 16. The teenage pregnancy rate in the East Midlands is similar to the rate in England as a whole.

The 10-year Teenage Pregnancy Strategy was developed by the Social Exclusion Unit, and recognised that teenage pregnancy is both a result and cause of social exclusion. The Strategy was launched in June 1999 with two main goals: to reduce the rate of teenage conceptions by halving the rate of conceptions among under-18s by 2010 and establish a firmly downward trend in conceptions to under-16s; and to get more teenage parents into education, training or employment, to reduce their risk of long term social exclusion with a target of 60% participation by 2010.

Each Public Health Observatory has lead policy areas; one of the lead policy areas for EMPHO is Teenage Pregnancy. As lead PHO on Teenage Pregnancy EMPHO has agreed to provide signposting to other data sources, methods and expertise. To fulfil this role we are developing an inventory of data sources, methods, expertise and key contacts to link to.

These information pages contain:

Links to the latest Teenage Pregnancy Data
EMPHO report on Teenage Pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy interactive mapping
Latest releases from the Teenage Pregnancy Unit
Links to other useful resources and reports on sexual health

For information and data about teenage pregnancy in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, see the Other APHO Regions/Nations section.

If you have any queries on teenage pregnancy data please contact .

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PAGE CREATED: 1 April 2007 | PAGE REVISED: 12 October 2009