Research Report
Introduction
I am carrying out this research because I want
to find out how teenage mothers perceive the
support – and the level of this support – that they
receive in the duration of pregnancy and during
the first year of motherhood. I feel that
this research topic will benefit my own learning and development because I want to study a
midwifery degree, so this research will help me gain a better insight into the support
midwives may or may not have offered teenage mothers, who are generally the most
vulnerable of mothers-to-be. I am interested to find out if there are any differences in the
quality of support offered to teenage mothers after they have given birth, as well as where
they feel they received the most and least support, and why they perhaps believe this is.
Literature Review
In 1998, the UK had one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Western Europe, and
these rates have halved themselves in the past 20 years and are now in fact at their lowest
levels since the late 1960’s. Last year, the Office for National Statistics released data which
revealed that the fall in the conception rate among females aged between 15 and 19, as the
standout success story in the public health field; just 14.5 per 1000 births were to teenagers,
with a drop in all age groups below 25. “It’s the result of an unusually long-term and
ambitious strategy launched by the Labour government in 1999,” said Alison Hadley, director
of the Teenage Pregnancy Knowledge Exchange at the University of Bedfordshire. “The
drive to reduce teenage pregnancy was given 10 years to achieve a 50% fall in under-18
conception rates. Unusually for government schemes, efforts really were sustained for the
full 10 years and ambitions weren’t lowered, despite difficulties and slow progress at the
start.”
(left) Birth rates of women aged 40+ have risen to a higher level than that of women aged
under 20 for the first time since 1947.
Introduction
I am carrying out this research because I want
to find out how teenage mothers perceive the
support – and the level of this support – that they
receive in the duration of pregnancy and during
the first year of motherhood. I feel that
this research topic will benefit my own learning and development because I want to study a
midwifery degree, so this research will help me gain a better insight into the support
midwives may or may not have offered teenage mothers, who are generally the most
vulnerable of mothers-to-be. I am interested to find out if there are any differences in the
quality of support offered to teenage mothers after they have given birth, as well as where
they feel they received the most and least support, and why they perhaps believe this is.
Literature Review
In 1998, the UK had one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Western Europe, and
these rates have halved themselves in the past 20 years and are now in fact at their lowest
levels since the late 1960’s. Last year, the Office for National Statistics released data which
revealed that the fall in the conception rate among females aged between 15 and 19, as the
standout success story in the public health field; just 14.5 per 1000 births were to teenagers,
with a drop in all age groups below 25. “It’s the result of an unusually long-term and
ambitious strategy launched by the Labour government in 1999,” said Alison Hadley, director
of the Teenage Pregnancy Knowledge Exchange at the University of Bedfordshire. “The
drive to reduce teenage pregnancy was given 10 years to achieve a 50% fall in under-18
conception rates. Unusually for government schemes, efforts really were sustained for the
full 10 years and ambitions weren’t lowered, despite difficulties and slow progress at the
start.”
(left) Birth rates of women aged 40+ have risen to a higher level than that of women aged
under 20 for the first time since 1947.
