For support or information about sexual health, pregnancy or parenting contact Gateway Community Health in Wodonga on (02) 6022 8888 or Albury Community Health Service on (02) 6058 1800.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
TEENAGE pregnancy is on the rise on the Border, prompting calls for schools and families to improve the standards of sex education for young people.
New figures released by Albury Wodonga Health showed the birth rate for women aged 20 years and under doubled in the past financial year — and had tripled since 2008.
In 2010-11, there were 100 births, which accounted for 6 per cent of all births at Wodonga hospital.
That was up from 50 (3 per cent) in 2009-10 and 32 (2 per cent) in 2008-09.
The latest figures from the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development showed in 2008 Wodonga’s teenage birth rate was 25.9 per 1000 females.
The Victorian average was just 10.6 per 1000.
Wodonga mother Alison Greenfield’s daughter Tammy, 16, is pregnant.
She said parents needed to know Border teenagers were taking risks.
She said many turned to “drugs, alcohol and sex” to keep entertained.
“You need a lot of support in place here, because kids get bored really easy,” Ms Greenfield, 46, said.
Sexual health clinic co-ordinator at Gateway Community Health Lauren Coelli said the majority of the pregnancies were unplanned.
She said schools and families need to better educate young people about safe sex and the services on the Border available to them.
Ms Coelli said some teenagers engaged in unsafe sex without being fully aware of the dangers.
“One of the trends we are finding here is a lot of young people don’t personalise that risk,” Ms Coelli said.
“They don’t think (pregnancy) can happen to them.”
Ms Coelli said others were afraid to go to their doctor to access contraception out of fear of being recognised.
It was a factor which also scared young people from visiting services in smaller towns, including Rutherglen and Beechworth, that she said were experiencing a boom in teenage pregnancies.
“A lot of (teenagers) don’t know that they don’t have to go to their family GP or that they can go to a GP by themselves,” Ms Coelli said.
Co-ordinator of young mothers groups at Gateway Community Health, Debra Madley, said there needed to be a concerted effort from the community to turn things around for its young people.
Otherwise, rates of teen pregnancies would rise.
Ms Madley said the children of teenage mothers would often follow in their parent’s footsteps.
“Most of the young people that I work with and I support have had a history of their mums being in the situation,” she said.
