Hot spot for teen mums

NORTH Queensland teens are twice as likely to become pregnant than those living in Brisbane, new data has revealed.

A report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found North Queensland had a birthrate of 22.4 per 1000 women aged 15- 19 compared to a rate of 11.5 in Brisbane. There were about 8200 teenage mothers in 2015 and of these two in five lived in the country’s lowest socio- economic areas.

Western Queensland had the highest rate of teen pregnancy with 49 in 1000 women under the age of 20 giving birth.

About 32 per cent of teenage mothers smoked in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy and 25 per cent continued to smoke afterwards. Babies born to teens were more likely to be born preterm, with a low birth weight and need resuscitation.

One in four of all teenage mothers were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

Indigenous teenage mothers had higher levels of antenatal risk factors and poorer baby outcomes than non- indigenous teenage mothers.

The institute’s spokeswoman, Dr Fadwa Al- Yaman, said almost three- quarters of teenage mothers were aged 18 or 19 but that didn’t mean they had better health outcomes.

“Despite the majority of teenage mothers being in their late teenage years, the outcomes for their babies are often poorer than for mothers just a few years older at 20- 24 years,” she said.

Townsville GP Dr Michael Clements said “unfortunately” the results of the report were “not surprising”.

“We know remote areas have poorer access to GP support,” he said. “The real way to tackle teen pregnancy is to ensure there are better relationships between children, teens and GPs and so with rural and remote areas that have less access it’s not surprising the rates are higher.”

Dr Clements said GPs were well placed to provide information, guidance and assistance about pregnancy and contraception.

“We like to see people of all ages including teens engage with their GP to help prevent unwanted pregnancies, and in those pregnancies that are desired, no matter what age we like to coach them through having a healthy baby and healthy pregnancy,” he said.

Dr Clements said women could experience fear and apprehension with a new pregnancy but that shouldn’t stop them accessing health services.