From: http://msn.co.uk/
The number of under-age girls becoming pregnant has risen by an alarming
11%, according to new figures from the Government.
The conception rate for girls aged 13 to 15 rose by 11% to 9.4 pregnancies
per 1,000 in 1996, compared with 8.5 per 1,000 in 1995, said the Office for
National Statistics.
More than three-quarters of the girls falling pregnant were 15, and more
than half the youngsters had abortions, the survey showed.
The number of marriages last year fell to the lowest level since the First
World War.
The survey, Birth Statistics 1997, also showed an increase in the number of
children born outside marriage.
Thirty-seven per cent of live births were to unmarried parents, compared
with 23% of live births 10 years ago. Of these, 79% were registered jointly
by the mother and father.
In 1997 there were 142,000 births jointly registered by unmarried parents
living at the same address compared with 75,000 in 1987.
Births registered by the mother alone - indicating a one-parent family -
have remained steady at around 50,000 each year for the past decade.
The survey, which covers England and Wales only, also shows few mothers
choosing to give birth at home. Ninety-eight per cent of all births took
place in hospital, with 99% of those at an NHS hospital.
There were 642,000 live births in England and Wales in 1997, a decrease of
1.1% compared with 649,000 in 1996, which had shown the first increase since
1990.
Mark
Dr G Mark Trowell
Highbridge Medical Centre
Pepperall Road
Highbridge
Somerset
TA9 3YA
01278 783220
01278 785486 (Fax)
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