'I have no regrets about being a teenage mother'

Teenage pregnancy rates in Ipswich and Lowestoft are significantly higher than the national and regional averages, it has emerged.

Suffolk County Council and other partners - including the NHS - have set up a group to review why this is happening and made recommendations to try to curb the trend.

Improving access to sexual health services and educating young people about their options are among the options.

But the BBC has also spoken with women who have told how having a baby as a young person helped transform their lives for the better.

Isabella was 16 years old when she became pregnant. It was something she and her partner planned.

Now 17, she lives in a special mother and baby unit supported by the YMCA Trinity Group in Ipswich.

The unit, as well as accommodation, offers wrap-around care for new parents.

Isabella says she "loves" being a mum and says: "I think it is amazing".

Asked if being a teenager made it harder for her she said: "I don't think it's much difference.

"Obviously there are things that I could have done if I didn't have a baby but I don't regret it at all. I think it's the same as if I was 25, 30, I think it'd be the same. I enjoy every minute of it."

Isabella said she has faced some judgement from older parents, saying: "Sometimes I get a few funny looks, but it's more online that I get comments and all sorts of stuff. "

Looking to the future, she says: "I just want to focus on my baby and make her happy and have my little family."

The number of conceptions for under 18s in Ipswich in 2022 according to ONS data was 21.3 per 1,000 - that compares with the national rate of 13.9 per 1,000 and the for the East of England it was 12.9 per 1,000.

The figures were revealed in council documents to a health scrutiny committee, which also noted that the rates in Ipswich had been "considerably" higher than both the East of England and England since 2016.

Chelsea also lives in Ipswich and says it was a "shock" to find out she was pregnant when she was 17 but now believes it was the best thing that could have happened to her.

The 19-year-old says she was left out of education "for much of her life" and becoming pregnant gave her the focus to go back to college during her pregnancy and gain the qualifications she didn't get at school.

"It just makes you realise there's someone that you need to look after all the time and it's good.

"It just made me go on the straight and narrow. A lot of people say how far I've come," she says.

She believes young people will benefit from more awareness around contraception.

At the More than Mum monthly drop-in coffee morning Stacey Runciman is chatting.

Mums are swapping tips on how to help babies sleep.

Runciman is the project officer for the Future Female Society which runs the drop in and is currently studying for her masters degree.

The 39-year-old had the first of her six children when she was 16.

"I think it is really lonely being a young mum. Especially when all your friends are still at school - they're going off to college."

She adds: "You lose yourself really quickly as well because you haven't established a life, you haven't established friends, you haven't established what you like really."

Runciman, who lives in Claydon, near Ipswich, thinks there should be more support for young parents, trying to bring them together to form bonds.

She believes this could be "life changing" for them.

Runciman believes "education is key" to trying to bring down rates but cautions decision makers who don't involve the teenagers in the process.

"Young people need to be involved - seeing what they want, seeing how they want support instead of trying to dictate when people have children".

Once a teenage mother herself, she adds: "It's not something I would advise anyone to do.

"I do say to my children - try to wait off to have a child because it isn't easy.

"But if it's going to happen, it's going to happen and we should support our young people because they are fantastic."

The YMCA Trinity Group offer 12 self-contained flats in Ipswich for parents-to-be and new parents between the ages of 16 and 22.

Lizzy Woods is from the group and said the flats are in demand, in part because they offer an independent place to live but also because they support the new parents.

"Our programmes really are about developing the independence skills.

"Everything from what it is when you are going through pregnancy as a woman and all the changes in your body to how you are caring for a newborn and how to make fresh food; how you are living on a budget and how to do bedtime and bath time and all those sorts of things."

The accommodation for the young parents is paid for through housing benefit but all the additional support is funded by the YMCA's "charitable missions."

The Teenage Pregnancy Leadership Group set out a series of recommendations when it was first set up in 2024.

These included a sexual and reproductive health education strategy aimed at young people; increasing access to sexual health services in rural areas and to promote the eC-Card scheme which gives access to free condoms.

Bobby Bennett, councillor responsible for children and young people's services at the Conservative run authority said: "One of the key areas is about education. A lot of that sits with schools.

"They do the work around healthy relationships, sexual education but where we've got issues in Lowestoft and Ipswich, we are putting in an additional resources to help with that.

"So going into schools and talking about what it actually means to be a young mum".

The group will be asked to update the council's scrutiny committee in July with the progress made.

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