Massive fall in teenage pregnancy rate

[DillyDaydreaming]

Here

I didn't agree with all of the stuff Labour did but DO think their public health agenda was bang on the money. This wasn't the fall they wanted but is still pretty impressive and shows the impact of the public health stuff which went on across the board from Health/Education/Media to support various campaigns.

It obviously gave us a more sexually aware teenager - would have been nice to see it MORe successful but in terms of outcomes it's still good and positive - hope the downward trend continues.

But it seems like all the good work might be being undone :(

agree with jenai - now the tories are in power funding will be removed and the rates will rise again.

Yeah - not a fan of what is currently happening to the Public Health agenda at all. Hope the good work is not ALL undone,

it will be undone.

I work in the field and my role and many colleagues roles are redundant after april. :(

are they sure about the reason for this though?

there is a 'drop -in' centre in town which is permanently empty.

do they think the recession may have had some effect on behaviour (ie teenagers staying in on friday nights cos they're broke, instead of going out and getting pg?)

Sadly no surprise there Thandeka - we're losing loads of staff where I work too. Children's epilepsy nurse is going, the learning disabilities specialist nurse who visits and supports families, the admin staff who support the social communication clinic for ASDs. Dreadful - our teenage pregnancy rate dropped by a third locally with the input. Just so hoping the work will not be undone too quick.

No - the teenage pregnancy rate has been dropping over the past few years - last year was the lowest rate. Nothing to do with the recession I doubt. More to do with a whole wealth of public health stuff going on inter-agency to work with teenagers around healthy life choices and the difficulties of being a teenage parent.

I remember doing a few PSE lessons on teenage pregnancy in around 2002/03 at school. The bits I remember were attempting to fold a buggy while holding a baby, under a time limit (to simulate getting on a bus) and attempting to get said buggy up a flight of stairs on your own without the baby crying (was one of the weighted ones which cried if you moved it too roughly). They also got us to complete a worksheet while playing a tape of a baby crying. And got us to imagine telling our parents we were pregnant/had got someone pregnant - then we had to tell everyone how we thought they might react.

Most people seemed to be put off by it, or at least gain more of an idea what it might be like. It didn't help me as I was terminally broody and I loved all the stories the nurse was telling us about her pregnancies etc. But for most people it seemed to make them think.