6.5% of girls under 18 in Southampton get pregnant

Despite Department of Health statistics showing the national rate falling by 10%, in Southampton figures show the number of girls under 18 getting pregnant has risen by 11%.

The council's teenage pregnancy unit say reasons for this include poor job expectations and ignorance of their career options.

They have appointed an education exclusion officer, to try and keep teenage mothers in school and break the cycle of children of young mothers becoming pregnant themselves at a young age.

Highest in Europe

Britain has had the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Europe since the 1970's, but the figures have recently started to come down.

Under the latest figures, those for 2001, England has a teenage conception rate (under 18's) of 4.2%, six times that of Europe's lowest, Holland.

The government set a target of reducing this by 15% nationally by 2004, and looks on course to achieve it.

In Southampton though, 6.5% of girls under 18 get pregnant, compared to 4.8% in Portsmouth and 3.2% in the rest of Hampshire.

Most of these pregnancies are terminated.

A report compiled in 1999 highlighted three key areas that contributed to the high pregnancy rate; low expectations of education or the job market, ignorance and lack of accurate information about contraception and lack of understanding of what being a parent would involve.

Other initiatives in Southampton to tackle the problem include taking a baby simulator round schools to show girls the reality of life as a teenage mother.