TEEN pregnancy rates have almost halved in the North East since the baby bonus was introduced in 2004.
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Despite popular belief, the number of births involving women under 20 in the Hume region fell from 143 in 2003, to 83 in 2006.
The most recent Victorian Department of Human Services figures show a steep decline in teenage pregnancies since 2003.
Health promotion worker Julie Tyler, of Women’s Health Goulburn North East, said the statistics were likely to surprise.
“There was a rumour going around saying there were a lot of young women just having babies because of the baby bonus,” she said.
“They’re not doing it for welfare, they still want careers and everything.”
Ms Tyler spoke yesterday at the Benalla launch of a report into teen pregnancies in the North East.
The report, A Road Less Travelled, looks at the experiences of 21 young mothers.
It explores why the birth rate among young women in regional and rural Victoria is higher than that of their Melbourne counterparts.
In the 10 years to 2004, the average number of births to women under 20 in the Hume region was almost double Melbourne’s.
“We need to take a look at why rural girls are getting pregnant at twice the rate of city women,” Ms Tyler said.
Teen pregnancies in the Hume region accounted for 4.7 per cent of births, while Melbourne’s Eastern Metro was 1.6 per cent and the city’s Northern Metro figure was 1.6 per cent.
In 2006, Benalla had the most teen births in the North East.
One women was quoted in the report as saying, “My baby’s dad [said], ‘if you keep the baby then I’m not going to be able to handle it and I’ll kill myself’.
“I sort of felt like I had two lives in my hands.”
Another woman told how her baby’s father was in jail and she did not want to raise the child alone.
About 70 health and community service workers yesterday took part in a forum to develop potential recommendations for the report.
Topics included changing sex education in schools, reducing stereotypes in advertising and helping teen mums communicate better with doctors and nurses.
Two-thirds of the mums studied in the report said their pregnancy was unplanned.
Ten of the 21 women were single during the pregnancy.
- Editorial — page 52
