A lot of women are waiting to have families until later in their lives, but in the U.K. that number is getting way up there into record levels in England and Wales while girls under 18 has dropped a little. The latter part of that statement is definitely good news, but it comes with a dark cloud.
The pregnancy rate rose over 12 percent among women 40-44 in 2005 and 2006. That was the record breaking sharpest rise ever. Now while the teen birth rate lowered, it wasn’t anything to brag about. For every 1000 girls in the 15 to 17 age bracket, the rate only dropped from 41.1 to 40.7 percent. For those confused by decimals, that’s only 4/10’s of a percent. Not much to brag about. Even the birth rate in girls younger than that, the frightening 13-15 age bracket, the pregnancy rate dropped from8.7 percent to 7.7 percent. And let’s face it, ANY drop in the birth rate in that age bracket is more than welcome.
The highest rate of conceptions was between the ages of 25 to 29 at 129 for every 1000 women. Another interesting note which is a sign of the times, is that an enormous 56% of all of the 866,000 plus conceptions in 2006, were outside of marriage. That number has always been on a steady increase every year for the past decade. They do note however that 80% of those conceptions resulted in maternity as opposed to giving up the child for adoption, abortions, miscarriages, etc..
I guess we’re supposed to be comforted by these numbers somehow. It just goes to show that society looks upon pregnancy risk and parenting as an afterthought to sexual relations. The impending doom of which appears to be a very messed up generation of children forthcoming well into or the foreseeable future. Waves and waves of them. It’s a very disappointing report, but a wake up call for all of us that still hold onto those silly family values.
