Teenage Pregnancy
8.33 The UK has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in Western Europe. Teenage mothers are prone to poor antenatal health, lower birth weight babies and higher infant mortality. Their long-term health and that of their children is worse than average. They are also less likely to finish their education, less likely to find a good job and more likely to end up as single parents and bringing up their children in poverty. There has been a concerted drive to address this through improving sex and relationship education in schools, improving provision of contraceptive services for young people, media campaigns and targeted support for pregnant teenagers and teenage parents.
8.34 Conception rates amongst teenage girls (aged 15-17) are low in the South West compared to England as a whole, and rates have fallen since 1998. 2004 data shows that the conception rate was 34.4 per 1,000 females in this age group in the South West, compared to 41.5 per 1,000 for England. The corresponding rates in 1998 were 39.9 and 47.0 respectively. Although the rate is low overall in the region, this masks wide variations between local authority areas with Gloucester, Swindon, Exeter, Bristol, Weymouth and Portland all showing significantly higher rates than the England average in the combined years 2002-04.