Teens and toddlers
Friday 20 October 2006
Few people can deny that babies are cute, but despite recent falls, the UK still has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Western Europe.
A new scheme hopes to show teenagers that being responsible for a small child day in, day out is no picnic.
Hands-on experience
The Teens and Toddlers programme in London takes a group of teenagers considered to be at risk of becoming young parents and gives them hands-on experience of dealing with real-life nursery children.
They're a handful
As anyone who's been around small children can tell you, they can be very demanding and more than a handful.
It's a chance for the teens involved to see just what it's like to bring up a toddler and have them depend on you at all times.
Life-changing experience
As well as spending time with the tiny tearaways, young people taking part in the programme get special lessons to understand just how much of a massive impact an unplanned pregnancy would have on their lives.
It looks as if spending all that time in close contact with a group of feisty tots made quite an impression on those involved: so far, 97.5 per cent of participants who completed the course did not become pregnant and 85 per cent said that it made them want to leave having kids until later in their lives.
Safe sex
Avoiding pregnancy is all about safe sex. Whether you're a guy or a girl, you shouldn't leave it up to the other person to sort out contraception: you're responsible for yourself.
Having a baby is a massive commitment and can take up a lot of time, energy and cash. Wouldn't you rather wait?
Take a look around n2k's Relationships section for more info on sorting out contraception and sex.
