Under 18 Conceptions

This topic area covers statistics and information relating to under 18 conceptions in Hull including local strategic need and service provision. Further information relating to the mothers of all ages is available within Pregnancy and Maternal Health, and Births and Infant Health under Maternal Health and Infants within Children and Young People. Information on Sexual and Reproductive Health is given under Health Factors within Adults.

This page contains information from the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities’ Fingertips. Information is taken ‘live’ from the site so uses the latest available data from Fingertips and displays it on this page. As a result, some comments on this page may relate to an earlier period of time until this page is next updated (see review dates at the end of this page).

Headlines

• Although it can be positive for many young women, teenage pregnancy is often associated with poorer outcomes for both young parents and their children.
• The rate of under 18 and under 16 conceptions in Hull have both halved since 2009.
• Despite this decrease, the rate of under 18 conceptions in Hull in 2021 is significantly higher than England (29.1 compared to 13.1 per 1,000 women aged 15-17 years), and the rate in Hull increased slightly in the last couple of years.
• During 2021, there were 128 under 18 conceptions (27 of which were under 16 years) in Hull considerably fewer than the 381 under 18 conceptions in 1998.
• In 2021, 28% of the under 18 conceptions led to a termination which was considerably lower than for England (53%).
• In 2021/22, there were 55 delivery episodes among Hull mothers were aged under 18 years representing 1.8% of all deliveries. However, this has decreased considerably since 2010/11 when there were 100 delivery episodes among Hull mothers aged under 18 years representing 2.8% of all births.

The Population Affected – Why Is It Important?

Teenage conceptions usually refers to conceptions to women who are under the age of 18. Although it can be positive for many young women, teenage pregnancy is often associated with poorer outcomes for both young parents and their children.

Teenage pregnancy is a complex social issue with a number of contributing risk factors including living in poverty, low educational attainment or not finishing education, absenteeism, not being in education, employment or training (NEET), involvement of social care, low self-esteem, early sexual activity and poor contraception use. There are also disproportionately poor outcomes for those who do become teenage parents. At age 30, teenage mothers are 22% more likely to be living in poverty and 20% more likely to have no qualifications than mothers giving birth aged 24 or over and are much less likely to be employed or living with a partner. There is a growing recognition that socio-economic disadvantage can be both a cause and a consequence of teenage parenthood.

The Hull Picture

The Office for Health Improvement & Disparities’ Fingertips presents information on under 18 conceptions. The figures for the under 18s relate to numbers per 1,000 females aged 15-17 years (conceptions, terminations and live births), and the conception rate for the under 16s relate to number of under 16 conceptions per 1,000 females aged 13-15 years. The figure for teenage mothers relates to the percentage of delivery episodes where the mother is aged under 18 years. The figure for the under 18s conceptions which lead to a termination is also given as a percentage out of all under 18 conceptions. The birth rate is given as the number of births to under 18s with births registered within the stated calendar year.

In 2021, the under 18 conception rate in Hull was more than twice as high as the rate for England, and fewer than one-third resulted in a termination compared to over half nationally. The termination rate among all young women under 18 years of age in Hull was also higher than England for 2021 with the under 18 birth rate more than three times higher in Hull compared to England.

The under 16 conception rate in Hull for 2021 was two and a half times higher than the rate in England.

Among all delivery episodes in Hull during 2021/22, 1.8% were among young women aged 12-17 years compared to 0.6% for England.

In Hull, the rate of under 18 conceptions has decreased significantly since 1998. The decrease in Hull has been at a faster rate than the decrease nationally thus reducing the inequalities gap between Hull and England. However, despite this, the rate in Hull in 2021 is 122% higher than England, and the rate in Hull has increased over the last couple of years.

During 2021, there were 128 under 18 conceptions in Hull which is considerably lower than the 381 under 18 conceptions in 1998.

Whilst the percentage of under 18 conceptions which lead to a termination has been variable particularly since 2009, throughout the entire period 1998 to 2021, the percentage in Hull has been consistently lower than England ranging between 28% and 33% 0ver the last three years in Hull (compared to 53% to 55% for England).

During 2021, 36 of the 128 under 18 conceptions in Hull resulted in a termination.

However, even with the lower termination rate associated with under 18 conceptions, because the under 18 conception rate is twice as high as England, the overall termination rate among young women aged under 18 years is around 30% higher in Hull compared to England for 2021. Between 2013 and 2021, the overall termination rate among under 18s has generally been higher in Hull than England.

During 2021, 33 women who were aged under 18 years had terminations in Hull.

This will be a slightly different cohort of women to those mentioned above in relation to terminations associated with under 18 conceptions, as the time period will differ slightly. The terminations associated with under 18 conceptions will relate to calendar year when the under 18 conception occurred, but the overall rate of terminations among all under 18s will relate to the specified calendar year when the termination occurred.

Given the high under 18 conception rate and the relatively low termination rate among under 18s, it is not surprising that the birth rate among under 18s in Hull is statistically significantly higher than England, and it has been for the period 2009 to 2021. The difference in the birth rate between Hull and England has been reducing over time though which has reduced the inequalities gap between Hull and England.

The under 18 birth rate was 22.9 per 1,000 women aged 15-17 years in 2009 and has halved to 11.1 in 2021. In Hull, there were 49 women aged under 18 years who gave births to babies where the registration of the birth was completed during 2021.

The under 16 conception rate has also fallen significantly over time. The rate in 2019 was the lowest it has been in Hull reaching 4.3 under 16 conceptions per 1,000 population aged 13-15 years. However, the rate increased between 2019 and 2020 to 5.0 conceptions per 1,000 population aged 13-15 years, and has increased further to 5.7 per 1,000 population aged 13-15 years for 2021. The total numbers of conceptions are relatively small so it is anticipated that there will be some year-on-year variability (see Small Numbers).

In 2021, there were 27 under 16 conceptions in Hull which is around one-third the number that occurred during 2009.

The percentage of delivery episodes where the mother is under 18 years has also fallen in Hull. In 2010/11, there were 100 deliveries where the mother was aged under 18 years representing 2.8% of all births in Hull, but in 2020/21 there were 35 deliveries representing 1.5% of all births.

Strategic Need and Service Provision

The international evidence for reducing teenage pregnancy is clear. Building the knowledge, skills, resilience and aspirations of young people and providing easy access to welcoming services, helps them to delay sex until they are ready to enjoy healthy, consensual relationships and to use contraception to prevent unplanned pregnancy. An open culture and ease of parental communication around sexual issues are also associated with lower teenage pregnancy rates. Evidence and learning has shown that partnership working is vital. For effective local delivery, health, education, social care and safeguarding agencies need to understand the relevance of healthy relationships and teenage pregnancy to their own priorities, and how they can contribute to the solution. In the same way that effective relationships and sex education needs a ‘whole school’ approach to provide a positive and supportive environment outside the classroom, and building young people’s resilience needs a family, community and service response, prevention of teenage pregnancy also requires a whole system approach. So there is no ‘wrong door’ for a young person seeking advice. Having a trusted adult to turn to on personal issues is protective for young people on a number of health and emotional outcomes.

The Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (formerly Public Health England) have recommended a ‘whole systems’ approach.

Resources

Ermisch, J. Does a ‘teen birth’ have longer term impacts on the mother?  Suggestive evidence from the British Household Panel Study.  ISER Working Papers Number 2003-32. Institute for Social and Economic Research: London, 2003.

Department for Education and Skills, Teenage pregnancy: accelerating the strategy to 2010. Department for Education and Skills: London, 2006.

The Office for Health Improvement & Disparities’ Fingertips: https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/

Office for National Statistics. Conception statistics, England and Wales, 2022: www.ons.gov.uk

The Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (formerly Public Health England). Teenage pregnancy prevention framework. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teenage-pregnancy-prevention-framework

The Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (formerly Public Health England). Teenage pregnancy prevention framework (Powerpoint presentation).

Updates

This page was last updated / checked on 24 May 2023.

This page is due to be updated / checked in February 2024.