Impact of Teenage Pregnancy on UK Health and Social Care Systems

This report delves into the significant impact of teenage pregnancy on the health and social care system in the United Kingdom. It explores the multifaceted consequences, including the emotional, social, and economic costs associated with early parenthood. The report highlights how teenage pregnancy contributes to child poverty, limits educational and career prospects, and increases the likelihood of negative outcomes for both mothers and their children. It examines the link between teenage pregnancy and factors such as infant mortality, poor health, and social inequalities. Furthermore, the report discusses the government's initiatives to reduce teenage pregnancy rates, the challenges faced, and the strategies employed to address this critical issue. The report also provides insights into the key features of effective interventions, emphasizing the need for multi-faceted approaches that address child poverty, safeguarding, and poor sexual and mental health.

RUNNING HEAD: Health and social care management
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Health and social care management

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Contents
Part- 1...................................................................................................................................................2
Part- 2...................................................................................................................................................4
References..........................................................................................................................................8

Health and social care management 2
Part- 1
The purpose of academic writing is to communicate. It refers to a style of expression
which is used by the researchers to define knowledgeable boundaries of their
disciplines and the precise areas of the expertise. The characteristics which I
conquered by academic writing are formal tone, a clear focus on the research, use of
3rd party than the 1st person perception along with the precise word choice. The
scholarly experts make use of specific languages in the professions such as law or
medicine in order to convey agreed meaning about the complex ideas or concepts. It
is believed that in order to communicate effectively it is significant to understand the
audience and the way they like to attain information. The types of the academic
writing style learned by me are given below:
Descriptive: It is the simplest form of academic writing which I have learned in the
semester. The main purpose of academic writing is to provide facts or information.
For instance, the summary of an article or an article of the results of an experiment.
The instructions for a purely descriptive assignment comprises identify, report,
record, summarise and define.
Analytical: It is believed that analytical writing includes descriptive writing. The facts
and the information are reorganized to describe into categories, types, parts, groups
or relationships. The analytical writing includes instructions like analyze, compare,
contrast, relate and examine. Most of the academic writing is analytical.
Persuasive: The persuasive writing contains all the features of the analytical writing
along with the additional point of view. As per my opinion, persuasive writing
includes an argument, recommendation, analysis of findings and the valuation of the
work done by others. Here the claims made needs to be supported by some proof
like a reference to research outcomes or available sources.
Critical: I have experienced that critical writing is common for the purpose of
research, postgraduate and advanced undergraduate writing. It contains all the
features of persuasive writing. But it adds a point of view of the two persons in order
to include my own (Hyland, 2014).

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As per my opinion, academic writing is both formal and logical. It possesses a
logically organized flow of ideas which conveys that several parts are allied to form a
combined whole. The punctuations are used in order to establish the narrative tone
of their work and the marks are also used deliberately.
This report includes the effect of Teenage pregnancy on U.K health and social care
system. It is seen that the majority of the teenage pregnancies are unplanned and
around a half end in abortion. It costs emotionally to the individuals and families.
Having children at a young age can actually damage the health and well-being of
young women. It also limits to the education and career prospects of the women in
U.K. The children born to women at a young age are more likely to experience
negative outcomes later in the life (Staples, Egbert, Biber, and Gray, 2016). The
teenage pregnancy is a contributory factor and an outcome of the child poverty.

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Part- 2
The teenage pregnancy is defined as under-18 conceptions comprising even those
lead to live births and terminations. It is identified to be linked with poor health and
social segregation. Having children at an early age not only affects women’s health
but limits education and economic prospects. It is believed that teenage parents are
more anticipated to experience negative outcomes in the future. The children born to
teenagers are more vulnerable families and may require extra support to accomplish
a positive future for themselves and children (Robling, et. al. 2016). The pregnancy
at teenage is an influential factor and outcome of child poverty. The teenage parent
families have at least one parent under the age of 18 with the accountability. Such
families are under the increased risk and causes of poverty. It is due to the
wordlessness and low pay. The teenage mothers have a 64% increased the risk of
being born into poverty than the children born to the mothers in their twenties. At the
age of 30, teenage mothers are more anticipated to be living in the poverty than the
mothers giving birth at age of 24. Add on, these are less likely to be employed.
Poverty alike teenage pregnancy follows intergenerational cycles with children born
into poverty at a bigger risk of teenage pregnancy (Secura, et. al. 2014). It is
generally observed in the young women living in workless households when aged
11-15.
Major teenage parents and their children living in the deprived areas often
experience risks of poverty, poor health, social and economic outcomes and inter-
generational outlines of deficiency. Youngsters becoming parents at teenage are
more likely to drop out of school and misses a key phase of the education. It causes
to low educational achievement and no or low paying along with insecure jobs. The
teenage mothers are 25% more anticipated to have no education at age 30 than a
mother giving birth at the age of 24 or more. The young mothers are also likely to be
single parents with their children and raise them with one income and often live in
the temporary accommodation. It has been experienced that teenage mothers are
more perspective to be a partner with men who are poorly qualified and experiences
unemployment (Mezey, et. al. 2017). The infant mortality rate is also high for the
babies born to the teenage mothers. The infant mortality rate is 60% higher than the
babies born to the older mothers or after attaining a certain age. The teenage

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mothers have higher mortality rates and likely to have more accidents and
behavioural problems. The reduction in the teenage pregnancy makes a substantial
contribution in reducing infant mortality. The teenage pregnancy also promotes
health inequalities and causes to poor long-term outcomes for the young parents and
their children (Egilstrod, Ravn and Petersen, 2017).
As per the evidence, mother’s age, deprived socioeconomic background and limited
uptake of gynecological care together contribute to the poor outcomes completely.
The maternal and the child outcomes are linked with the teenage parenthood
comprising smoking in pregnancy, late bookings for maternity, poor maternal health,
perinatal depression, relationship breakdown, and isolation. Other factors
contributing are repeat unplanned pregnancies, no qualification, training or
employment, premature birth, poor diet, infant mortality, and low birth rate (Cense
and Ruard Ganzevoort, 2018). Reducing a number of teenagers who become
parents is the central agenda to reduce health inequalities and child poverty.
Reducing teenage pregnancy places a substantial burden on the social and public
services and the health care system. It costs almost £63 million per year. It is also
estimated that almost every £1is spent on pregnancy prevention. It is a priority of the
government to reduce teenage pregnancy. However, the government and the local
areas face an enormous challenge while planning for the prevention of pregnancy
(McElroy, S.W. and Moore, K 2018). The under 18 conception rate is a pointer within
the public health outcomes framework. It is a measurement indicator in the child
poverty strategy as well as measures success for the positive for youth policy. This
framework is mainly for the sexual health improvement in the UK. It even highlights
reduced rate of under 18 beginnings and sexually transmitted infections as a part of
improvement. The main objective of the framework is to develop an open culture
around relationships and sexual health which is something common in comparable
countries with low pregnancy rates. It is the priority of the health and well-being
strategy to reduce the under 18 conception rate (Flem, et. al. 2017). The health and
wellbeing board even sets a challenging target to reduce this rate.
The prevention of teenage pregnancy is a vital initiative to address which is possible
with the factors given below:

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Child poverty and worklessness: The teenage pregnancy is a contributory factor
along with the outcome of child poverty. The teenage parent family have at least one
parent below the age of eighteen and having the responsibility of raising children.
Poverty is like teenage pregnancy which follows intergroup cycles with children born
at increased risk of teenage pregnancy (Suciu, Pasc, Cucerea and Bell, 2016). It is
especially seen among the young women living in the workless households at the
age of 11-15. The majority of teenage parents live in the underprivileged areas with
their children and faces risk factors for poverty and experiences poor health.
Teenage parents are more anticipated to achieve low education along with insecure
jobs (Hadley, Chandra-Mouli and Ingham, 2016). The teenage mothers are likely to
have even no qualification or less qualification at the age of 30. It has been also
observed that young mothers are likely to be lone parents and raise children with
less or no income at all. They often live in sub-standard housing. The partners of the
teenage mothers are likely to be poorly qualified and have no unemployment.
Safeguarding: It has been observed that young women experience a high level of
violence and abuse in the relationships. It is also experienced that young women are
vulnerable to teenage pregnancy may have older partners. There is a connection
between sexual image, violence and oppression and teenage conception rates.
There is also a link between the teenage pregnancy and non-consensual sex (Hean,
Willumsen and Ødegård, 2018). The teenage girls who are sexually abused are
more likely to become sexually active at a very young age and increase the risk of
teenage pregnancy. The women and children are influenced by many impacts of the
abuse. Alcohol is one of the factors which contribute to sexual activity and later on
which is later regretted.
Infant mortality: The infant mortality rate born to teenage mothers is 65% higher than
the babies born from older mothers. The teenage mothers are likely to have more
accidents along with behavioral problems. A reduction in the teenage pregnancy
makes a significant contribution in reducing infant mortality.
Health inequalities: The teenage pregnancy does not affect teenage people equally
and the higher rates are found in the areas which experience poor health already.
The teenage pregnancy promotes to the health inequalities and causes to the poor

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outcomes in the future for the teenage parents and their children (Jonas, et. al.
2016).
Poor sexual outcomes: The key actions are required to be taken to reduce teenage
pregnancy rates such as effective SRE and improved access to cash services. It
impacts the young people suffering from sexual health. It is the concern of the
government public health to address teenage pregnancy along with reducing
sexually transmitted infections. The teenagers should be provided with access to
contraceptive and sexual health services and advice about using a condom in order
to achieve a positive outcome.
Poor emotion wellbeing and mental health: The teenage mothers are three times
more depressed than the older mothers and suffer from the poor mental health even
three years after the birth (McCall, Bhattacharya, Okpo and Macfarlane, 2015). The
lack of self-esteem can even affect a women’s ability to resist peer pressure, abusive
relationships and unwanted sexual activity.
As the teenage pregnancy in the UK is influenced by the inter-connected factors so
the strategy is necessary to be multi-faceted in the approach. It is not possible to
identify relative contributions but the key features can contribute to the success.
These key features are creating an opportunity for action, evolving an evidence-
based strategy, reviewing progress, effective implementation and implanting strategy
in the extensive government programmes and offering leadership throughout the
programme. The learning remains relevant in the UK as teenage birth remains
higher than in other countries. The policies adopted in the country seek to reduce
teenage pregnancy rates.

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References
Cense, M. and Ruard Ganzevoort, R., 2018. The storyscapes of teenage pregnancy.
On morality, embodiment, and narrative agency. Journal of Youth Studies, pp.1-16.
Egilstrod, B., Ravn, M.B. and Petersen, K.S., 2017. Living with a partner with
dementia: a systematic review and thematic synthesis of spouses' lived experiences
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Policy recommendations to enhance nursing education and services among Asean
member countries. International Journal of Advances in Medicine, 2(3), pp.324-329.
Flem, A.L., Jönsson, J.H., Alseth, A.K., Strauss, H. and Antczak, H., 2017.
Revitalizing social work education through global and critical awareness: examples
from three Scandinavian schools of social work. European Journal of Social
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Hadley, A., Chandra-Mouli, V. and Ingham, R., 2016. Implementing the United
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2010): applicable lessons for other countries. Journal of Adolescent Health, 59(1),
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Hean, S., Willumsen, E. and Ødegård, A., 2018. Making sense of interactions
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Hyland, K., 2014. Activity and evaluation: Reporting practices in academic writing.
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Jonas, K., Crutzen, R., van den Borne, B., Sewpaul, R. and Reddy, P., 2016.
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McCall, S.J., Bhattacharya, S., Okpo, E. and Macfarlane, G.J., 2015. Evaluating the
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database from 1950 to 2010. J Epidemiol Community Health, 69(1), pp.49-54.

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McElroy, S.W. and Moore, K.A., 2018. Trends over time in teenage pregnancy and
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