Teen pregnancies fall by three per cent

By [bbanks]

The number of teenage pregnancies in Lincolnshire has dropped according to latest figures - but only by three per cent.

Figures released by the Office of National Statistics show that 516 girls under 18 fell pregnant in 2008, compared with 533 in 2007.

Nationally, the overall pregnancy rate among under-18s in England and Wales has fallen to their lowest rate in over 20 years. However, the statistics show that Lincolnshire bucks the trend.

This is the second highest number of under-18 conceptions in Lincolnshire since 1998, following on from 2007's all time high of 533, which the Echo revealed in February last year.

Tony Hayer, pharmacist for Lincolnshire Co-operative, last year told the Echo that the county's Tackling Teen Pregnancy strategy was not working.

Now, he says that the figure going down, albeit only slightly, is a step in the right direction, but more work still needs to be done.

"I think we've touched the tip of the ice berg," he said.

"It's a good thing that the number of teen pregnancies has come down, but in the long term, it needs to come down a lot more.

"Most teenage pregnancies are unplanned, and they have a detrimental effect on the mother's own development, so, on that basis alone, not falling pregnant is a good thing.

"Education has played a major role on the drop, but there's still a lot of work to be done.

"The demographics within Lincolnshire has a lot to do with it. There are a lot of rural areas, and sometimes the dissemination of the education plan does not account for people in the middle of nowhere."