To wonder why teenage pregnancy rates have gone down

[Reallytired17]

here

Anecdotally, I remember four girls having babies in Year 11 in 1999.

Is it to do with better access to contraception, or are more pregnancies being terminated?

My DSD gets the depo injection - no arguments. She knows not going for it will have serious consequences while she lives under my roof

That sounds fairly coercive and controlling tbh. Does she have any say in what gets injected into her body? What are the consequences to saying "no"?

I don't really buy this argument that teen pregnancy is so much more stigmatised now - hasn't it always been stigmatised? Granted, in the past it was seen as more shocking that a girl was underage to be married rather than being underage per se, but it was never particularly celebrated.

I listened to the Radio 4 programme mentioned and it was very interesting but I felt extremely dismissive on the contraception point, it was a bit strange because it displayed all of this compelling evidence about LARC and then said oh but actually we have local data which disproves this so anyway and then promptly ended the segment! No explanation at all, I found that very dissatisfying.

One thing which I wondered was perhaps that attitudes have changed towards having children in general. It's no longer just the expected trajectory that everyone will get married and have children - other dreams are available and I could see in past generations if a young woman got pregnant unexpectedly it might just feel like things were happening sooner than planned so may as well go along with it, whereas now a lot of young people probably have different views and may not have decided whether they will have children or not or have an expectation that they'll be able to choose when it happens and who with, so they might be more careful about contraception and/or more likely to seek abortion if they did get pregnant unexpectedly. I think this can be somewhat subconscious because I'm certain it was for me - I never had a horror of getting pregnant because I always knew that I wanted children so although I of course recognised it wouldn't be ideal to happen so early, it never seemed like such a horrific prospect as the way (I seem to see) many young people seeing it these days.

My DSD gets the depo injection - no arguments. She knows not going for it will have serious consequences while she lives under my roof

This is imo genuinely horrible. What about her bodily integrity? Her maybe not liking the idea of getting injected with hormones?

Yes, I’m rather curious as well... what area these horrible consequences?

*serious consequences

Still sounds imo potentially coercive...

Ffs you people really do see shit that isn't there don't you! Given that the circle of friends she mixes in all think the whole world revolves around having a boyfriend it's simple - she has the injection or she doesn't go to his house.

Maybe people think that's a little strict but after the horrific promiscuous way her birth mother allowed her to behave from a very young age its absolutely necessary that we make sure she's protected from pregnancy. I am 100% sure if she still lived with that woman she'd have been a mother at 14/15

I'm sure you all understand that a doctor or nurse wouldn't physically force her to have something she didn't want to. We don't accompany her into the appointment either I just make them for her

Apt name evil

If you were my step-mother I'd tell you to fuck off.

So this is her father that wants you to do this...? (Or her mother, whichever parent you have a relationship with?)
We obviously don’t know her but it does sound coercive.

As for your argument about the nurse... well, if someone had already made her agree to it before that appointment?

The trouble is while you are protecting her from pregnancy she is exposed to other risks. Maybe more supervision would be more healthy?

AlmondPearls I rarely swear but I think I would as well.

I don't really buy this argument that teen pregnancy is so much more stigmatised now - hasn't it always been stigmatised? Granted, in the past it was seen as more shocking that a girl was underage to be married rather than being underage per se, but it was never particularly celebrated.

I think the argument rests on the idea that it's always been stigmatised but by authority figures - teachers, politicians, parents. People who vulnerable or rebellious teens are particularly unlikely to listen to, and who there's a certain cachet in defying. Like smoking - the fact that 'old people' tell you not to do it is part of the attraction. The argument is that yes, those people still discourage teenage pregnancy - but that the shift is that so do teens themselves. Rather than being seen as rebellious or grown-up, teens themselves see it as 'stupid' or 'sad' - like the person upthread who said that the young people she taught were scornful of someone 'who's going to have a life of shitty nappies'.

She's more than welcome to tell me to fuck off but seeing as I'm the one who stepped in when her birth mother allowed her to behave in a shocking way for a young teen and develop an AWFUL reputation im fairly sure she won't be doing that. She's more than aware of the dangers she put herself in while her mother was too busy trying to spite her ex husband. We are the ones who accommodate her having a boyfriend (distance) and who've had the birth mother ringing social services on us before she turned 16 and having to prove that all the things alleged happened whilst living with her mother and not us.

I think it’s a lot to do with as others have said social media but for many reasons people talk in a different way online than they do in real life and it’s almost impossible to block access to information now.

You would have a hard job convincing a teen these days that they are not allowed confidentiality which IME used to happen a lot and it prevented access to health care advice

It's really, really uncool now to get pregnant as a teenager. 'Pramface' is (was?) an insult. Getting pregnant young is something that poor, stupid people do.

Have also taken her to the GUM clinic more times than I care to admit - her birth mother actually phoned the police on me for doing it and claimed I DRAGGED her there by her hair.
I really don't see how us saying if you are going to stay at your boyfriends then you keep on top of your contraception is coercive but there's always some who create that kind of image isn't there. I wasn't permitted to stay over at boyfriends houses until I left home - my parents roof, their rules

And I'll say it again the serious consequences are she doesn't stay if her contraception isn't up to date. Seeing as she relies on us to ferry her there (quite a journey) it's something she has to accept. If it were down to my DH after everything he had to hear about his very young teen DD from her birth mothers friends she wouldn't have a bloody boyfriend ever so she's grateful for me stepping in 👍🏻

I think this can be somewhat subconscious because I'm certain it was for me - I never had a horror of getting pregnant because I always knew that I wanted children so although I of course recognised it wouldn't be ideal to happen so early, it never seemed like such a horrific prospect as the way (I seem to see) many young people seeing it these days.

I think this is a really interesting point you make, and you may well be right that more teenagers now envision a life without children at all. I have to say it wasn't true for me, though - I've always known I wanted children one day, but I had an absolute horror of getting pregnant as a teenager and in my early 20s - was paranoid about contraception, took the MAP for essentially no reason when I became convinced there was the slightest chance something had gone wrong, etc. In fact, I dedicated a lot of time and effort to not getting pregnant at the wrong time - which feels quite ironic now that having a baby in my early 30s has taken me 18 months TTCing with multiple miscarriages on the way. Turns out it wasn't so easy as I thought!

I really don't see how us saying if you are going to stay at your boyfriends then you keep on top of your contraception is coercive but there's always some who create that kind of image isn't there.

It’s not necessarily. Especially not when it’s about sleeping at his house / staying for what sounds like a rather prolonged amount of time. It was your initial comment that made it seem a good deal more serious / coercive, tbh.

However, if I couldn’t trust a child in my care to use a condom and be responsible I’d probably still not let them stay in a place where they’re likely to have sex (or similar things). Simply because of STDs...

I do lecture her about condoms as well but obviously I cannot police that. After the damage her birth mother has done I really have no choice than to be so black and white with rules - unfortunately I think the woman actually wishes she was a teen mother so she had something else to slag us off for 🙄

When I was a teenager it was a status symbol to have an older boyfriend, ie 14 yr old going out with male 20 +. Attitudes have changed and young people so much more aware of risks and less likely to be taken advantage of.
I remember being very jealous of a girl who was going out with the art teacher. He must've been in his mid twenties, we all thought he was very goodlooking and had a crush on him .
She got pregnant at 15 and left school.

Totally agree with @formerbabe - if you were a teenage girl with no decent job prospects you could make a career out of having babies and claiming benefits and a free council house. Starting at 16 and repeatedly producing babies could reliably keep the money rolling in until you were well over 40. It isn't so easy nowadays due to the shortage of council houses and the fact they push you to get a job as soon as your child goes to school

That hasn’t been the case for quite a few years.
More than a decade ago several areas implimented teen Mum temp accomadation which prevented access to Council housing for younger parents without first living in these. And even after you could potentially have been waiting ages.

We have had long social housing waiting lists for a lot longer than most people seam to think having kids hasn’t been a quick easy way in for a long long time.

The benefits thing as well you would have to have a child every 5 years and DWP figures suggest that that doesn’t really happen and also didn’t really happen when the age was 11. Obviously I don’t mean never ever happens but it’s not typical

She sounds horrible. I think your backstory makes this attitude (which does sound a bit crazy for people in other situations) a lot more understandable.

evil I'm sure you've made the appropriate decision for your DD's situation, there's no need to repeatedly defend yourself on here I don't think.