Teenage pregnancy rates in the UK are the highest in Western Europe Ministers are to step up efforts to reduce teenage pregnancy rates after a report found the government was set to miss a target to halve them by 2010. The Family Education Trust charity told the Sunday Telegraph the report showed the government’s strategy was failing. While rates of pregnancy among under-18s are at their lowest for two decades, the total number is up because of a rising teenage population. Figures are the highest in Western Europe - twice as high as in Germany, three times as high as in France and six times as high as in the Netherlands. Norman Wells, of the Family Education Trust, told the Sunday Telegraph that the government had allowed the “systematic removal of every restraint that used to act as a disincentive to under-age sex”. The Department for Children, Schools and Families - jointly responsible for the target with the Department of Health - said efforts would be “redoubled” in a bid to meet the “stretching” target. read more

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But Jamie Lynn Spears’ pregnancy doesn’t have to be, according to Birds & Bees Connections, a local company that offers courses on adolescence for parents and children. It’s very important to acknowledge feelings and emotions at this particular time in their lives (this goes for boys as well) and brainstorm what they can do with these feelings and emotions. Explain to them that you realize that sexual feelings are normal during this time in their lives; nevertheless it doesn’t mean they have to act on them, because there could be grave consequences once they do. Make sure the teen knows if you are initiating the conversation it’s not because you’re assuming they are engaging in a sexual behavior, you just want to talk with them about you own concerns. read more

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NEWARK New Jersey will require doctors to test pregnant women for the AIDS virus, except those who opt out, under a bill signed Wednesday by acting Governor Codey. Arkansas, Michigan, Tennessee and Texas require health care providers to test mothers for HIV, unless a mother asks not to be tested, while Connecticut, Illinois and New York test all newborns for HIV, according to the foundation. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that rates of HIV transmission from mother to unborn baby can be reduced to less than 2 percent through universal screening, drug treatment, Caesarian delivery and avoidance of breast feeding, Codey said. New Jersey, he added however, still has the highest rate of HIV infection in the country among African-American women and the fifth highest infection rate for all women in the United States. read more

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