Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
‘Life totally changes’
Dundee has highest rate of young girls who conceive
A MUM who became pregnant unexpectedly aged 17 has said young girls need to understand how “lifechanging” being a teen mother is.
Claire Smart, 26, from Lochee, was speaking as new figures revealed Dundee is once again the teenage pregnancy capital of Scotland.
There was an increase in the number of 15 to 19-year-olds who fell pregnant in 2015 compared with the previous year, according to Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland.
The statistics showed 51.8 15 to 19-year-olds per 1,000 fell pregnant in 2015 in Dundee — up from 50.7 the year before, almost 20 pregnancies more than the national average of 32.4.
The 2015 figure for Dundee reflects a five-year high for 15 to 19-year-olds.
Claire became pregnant with her son Robert after having been told it would be unlikely she would conceive without IVF — having undergone emergency surgery following an unplanned ectopic pregnancy just weeks before.
She went on to have another son, Jacob, three years ago.
Claire, a care assistant, said: “When you have kids your life totally changes — it’s not just about you any more, it’s about your child. I often think about it, but I wouldn’t change when I had my sons.
“The negatives are that you have to grow up and take full responsibility.
“Young girls should think before having unprotected sex. They need to understand how much of a life-changing thing it is.”
In 2014, Dundee had been the council area with the second-highest rate of pregnancies in people aged 15-19. However, the number of 15 to 19-yearolds getting pregnant in the city had dropped from 89 per 1,000 people in 2007 to 51.8 per 1,000 in 2015.
Ann Eriksen, from Tayside sexual health and blood borne viruses unit, said both Tayside and Dundee city have seen the biggest reduction in the rate of pregnancy in young women in Scotland in the past decade, adding: “There has been a great deal of work over many years by NHS Tayside and partner agencies to make sure we have in place a wide range of support and interventions that we know work to reduce unplanned pregnancy.”