People living in the teenage pregnancy capital of England and Wales have revealed what life is like for young mothers there – who face relentless judgement and battle to make ends meet.
In North East Lincolnshire, nearly seven per cent of all births were to women under 20 in 2023, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
It means the council area – home to fishing port Grimsby and neighbouring seaside towns Cleethorpes and Immingham – has the highest teen pregnancy rate in all of England and Wales.
This figure, though, has more than halved in the authority since the early noughties – mirroring a nationwide slump over the last decade, which has seen teen pregnancy at its lowest since records began in the 1960s.
But teenage mothers in Grimsby, one of the area’s largest towns with a population of more than 85,000, told MailOnline themselves why they thought the number was still so high in their area.
Rosie, now 17, had her daughter Rosalia when she was 16. She said: ‘There’s a lot of anti-social behaviour (ASB) going on. Some girls just think that having a baby is a way out.’
Her words are backed up by the council’s own admissions in a report from last year – ASB was named the ‘most frequent’ crime residents face and their ‘biggest concern’ during public consultation.
The latest North East Lincolnshire Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) added ASB ‘leaves the perpetrators, particularly young people, to progress to more serious offending’.
Nearly seven per cent of all births in North East Lincolnshire were to women under 20 in 2023. Pictured: Mother-of-one Rosie and partner Dennis, both 17, with their daughter Rosalia
Rosie, who lives in Grimsby, said that she believed many people ‘look down on young mums’
Grimsby resident Michaela reckoned the high rate of teen pregnancy locally could be explained by a lack of information about contraception: ‘We don’t really get taught as much in school’
It all makes for a tough environment in which to be a teenager, become a mother or bring up a child – and residents told MailOnline what life there is really like.
Mother-of-one Rosie, 17, said she was confronted with stigma around teenage motherhood when she became pregnant at 16, along with partner Dennis, now 17 also.
She told MailOnline: ‘People look down on young mums and say, ‘It’s going to be hard, it’s going to ruin your life’.
‘But I think even if you’re a young mum, you’re still as good as any other mum.
‘It depends on who you are but having a kid, it matures you in different ways and you’re not selfish like you were before.’
In Grimsby for the day from where she lives in Scunthorpe, she said she feels more judged there than in her hometown: ‘In Scunthorpe, not really. Here, I see a lot of old people giving me dirty looks. But I look about 12, I don’t look 17, so I kind of expect it.
‘But do you know what? It’s my life, not theirs, and I don’t owe anybody an explanation.’
Mother-of-one Michaela, 24, had her child last year – but said she has several friends who were teen mothers
Early years worker Amelia, 27, said: ‘If you’re not in work or education, you get money for having kids, that’s why people do it’
She herself became pregnant while on the implant – so she was not expecting it: ‘It was shocking but it was happy in the end, my family were there to support me, my friends, I had a very good support system.’
With several friends who have had babies at a young age too, she said: ‘It was a very different experience for me than what some other young mums have.’
Her experience made her think access to contraception was not the issue in North East Lincolnshire: ‘I think there is access to it, I think some people have issues with contraception – some people get pregnant on the implant or the pill… It’s a lot of different situations.’
But retiree Raymond, 70, of Grimsby, told MailOnline a rather different view of why teen pregnancy happens: ‘Put it this way, some people look at it as getting money off the government if they can. And I’m not being cynical about this.’
He explained: ‘Some mothers are good mothers. They go out to work and earn the money. Some of them are not that bothered.’
Student Grace, 16, of Grimsby, said the high teen pregnancy rate in the area is ‘probably’ to do with lack of information and education about contraception
Retiree Raymond, 70, said the problem is not access to education or information about safe sex, but rather the younger generation having ‘their own opinion’ on the issue
Raymond said: ‘They’ve got to look after those kids at the end of the day, they’ve got a responsibility to look after their children… You can’t just put them on somebody else.’
The problem is not access to education or information about safe sex, he said: ‘Put it this way, the information is out there if you want to get it but the young generation seems to have their own opinion. They won’t ask us what we think.
‘I think girls getting pregnant at 15, 16, is not really the right answer.’
The retiree thought younger generations will not be told: ‘But you know, it’s just one of those sad things – you can’t tell anybody. I’d like to help young people but you can’t.
‘We’re wiser, they say, which we are, but you can’t tell young people.’
He did not reckon there was still a stigma around teen motherhood: ‘I wouldn’t have thought so, I think we’ve moved on from that attitude from the 1960s and I’m from the sixties.
‘I think attitude’s changed now, people accept that. They still expect the young girls to use a bit of common sense. You leave school, you don’t want to get pregnant because you’ve got kids for the next 20 years. Sorry, I’ll rephrase – you’ve got your kids for life!’
He added: ‘We’ve got quite a lot of young women around here pregnant but, you know, you can’t really criticise them, can you?
North East Lincolnshire – home to fishing port Grimsby and neighbouring seaside towns Cleethorpes and Immingham – has the highest teen pregnancy rate in all of England and Wales
Residents of Grimsby believe there are a number of reasons why teenage pregnancy rates are so high, from lack of opportunities to poor education and high crime
‘I feel sorry for them but you know. It’s pretty bad around here actually, you know.’
Raymond has lived in Norwich, Norfolk, for the last 30 years but recently moved back to be with family after his wife died two years ago: ‘It has changed a lot, you can see how many shops are shut.’
He added: ‘Grimsby has got bad unemployment at the moment and bad housing.’
Unemployment in North East Lincolnshire, by the council’s own admission in its 2023-28 Housing Strategy, ‘remains higher than those levels experienced regionally and nationally’.
It is decisive on a lack of housing in the area too: ‘All evidence confirms that future additional housing provision is required across North East Lincolnshire.’
The area is one of the most deprived in England, ranking sixth out of 317 areas in the country for the Index of Multi Deprivation, which combines information on smoking, heroin deaths, alcohol, life expectancy, air pollution, avoidable deaths and obesity.
He imagined the difficulty of teen motherhood would affect young women’s mental health: ‘I think that’s why there’s a lot of young girls suffering with depression actually.
‘You’re getting a lot of girls growing up and they’re suffering with depression which I believe you get when you get pregnant sometimes.’
Unemployment in North East Lincolnshire ‘remains higher than those levels experienced regionally and nationally’ and is considered one of the most deprived areas
The area is one of the most deprived in England, ranking sixth out of 317 areas in the country
The council’s own Annual Equality Report, published in June last year, notes teenage pregnancy rates are ‘high’ in the area – and ‘significantly higher than the England rates’.
It also said: ‘Rates of teenage pregnancy are higher in our most deprived areas.’
Mother-of-one Michaela, 24, had her child last year – but said she has several friends who were teen mothers.
She reckoned the high rate of teen pregnancy locally could be explained by a lack of information about contraception: ‘We don’t really get taught as much in school.’
But with the fall of teen pregnancy more generally across the nation in the last decade, MailOnline was searching for answers about this too.
Experts say changing habits of teenagers are behind the trend, with youths today being more responsible and drinking less than previous generations.
Youngsters aware of the stigma of being a teenage mother and inspired by opportunities are instead also focusing on their career and education.
Access to the morning-after pill and long-term contraception has also encouraged rates to fall.
The council’s own Annual Equality Report, published in June last year, notes teenage pregnancy rates are ‘high’ in the area – and ‘significantly higher than the England rates’.
One resident said that in a town like Grimsby, which has high levels of anti-social behaviour, ‘having a baby is a way out’
Architects of Tony Blair’s Teenage Pregnancy Strategy – launched in 1999 with the aim of halving teen pregnancies by 2010 – claimed credit for the fall in teenage pregnancy rates despite that target still not being met.
But the number of teen pregnancies did not begin to decline in England until 2008 – nearly a decade after the introduction of the £250million campaign, scrapped by the Coalition in 2010.
Michaela, who is currently unemployed, had her own take on the decline of teen pregnancy too: ‘People still go out drinking, it’s just sometimes people are not really bothered about being a mother sometimes.’
Early years worker Amelia, 27, of Grimsby, weighed in on the matter as well: ‘I think maybe just people being more open about things like getting access to contraception and that sort of thing whereas before, it was maybe more of a taboo subject.’
But she was with Michaela on why teen pregnancy was common locally: ‘I would probably say lack of education around the subject and probably deprivation.
‘I think not family traditions but family follow-ons – so if they [had] a young parent themselves, following on.’
Amelia added: ‘Obviously, if you have children, then you get paid for it! If you’re not in work or education, you get money for having kids, that’s why people do it.
‘I think some people see it as an easy route when it’s not.’
Many residents have spoken about the lack of opportunities for young people in Grimsby as a contributing factor to high teen pregnancy rates
Parenting is expensive, she said: ‘It’s hard, it is, and me and my partner both work and even that’s hard – it does have a huge impact. Definitely nursery fees obviously have an impact.’
Student Grace, 16, of Grimsby, said the high teen pregnancy rate in the area is ‘probably’ to do with lack of information and education about contraception – and certainly, she felt she has not been taught enough about it at school.
It can be hard being a teen mother, she said: ‘I think they get judged.’
Her 18-year-old sister is currently pregnant – and ‘parts of it’, she said, have been ‘quite challenging’ for her, with a lack of employment and housing in Grimsby.
But she said: ‘I’ve always lived here, I don’t know any different.’
Cayci and Connor, 19 and 20, of nearby town Cleethorpes, were teen parents to their daughter.
The full-time mother said teen pregnancy was high locally, likely because: ‘Teenagers don’t know what contraception is.’
She added: ‘I was on contraception myself when I fell pregnant with her. It was a shock but it is what it is.’
The pair have felt judged for being teen parents, with Cayci saying, ‘I do get weird looks but it’s my life’ , and shopping centre security guard Connor agreeing, saying, ‘You’ve just to power through it’.
Asked if they found Grimsby to be a good place to bring up their child, both answered definitively, ‘No!’.
Grimsby has been identified as being a place of high deprivation and unemployment
Connor said, ‘If I were to give any kids advice, it would be to get out of this town, quickly’ – with Cayci weighing in to agree because of ‘violence’ and ‘people not bringing their kids up correctly’.
Connor explained: ‘It’s a massive town of drugs so kids get brought up and then all of a sudden, all they see is violence and immaturity and then they bring it up and it’s just all a cycle.
‘If I could give any advice to a young kid, it would be to find somewhere else to go.’
They were luckily able to find a house quickly – but the father-of-one said: ‘For other people, it might not be as easy.’
And as for jobs, Cayci said: ‘All the immigrants are taking our jobs, in the nicest way possible.
The couple reckoned teen pregnancy in general might be declining as young people go out less, with Cayci saying, ‘We don’t really drink, do we?’, and Connor agreeing, ‘I hardly drink, no’.
He added: ‘I think it’s dropping because people are realising how hard it is and how expensive it actually is. Because everything is going up, it’s only getting harder, isn’t it?
‘People are realising, [kids] are human, they’re not just a glorified doll. People have kids, they think, ‘Oh, I’ve got a kid’, but they’re a human at the end of the day and you’ve got to make sure you’re prepared for them.
One resident in Grimsby said there was ‘not the financial support anymore’ for young mothers and that having a child can exacerbate concerns around money and housing
‘Because if you don’t live comfortably, you’re in s**t and then s**t rolls downhill, it’s not fair for anyone.’
Retiree Susan Swift, 72, said she felt young people were just having ‘more children and more children, just so they don’t have to go to work’ – while she readily entered the workforce at 15.
In fact, she herself had her son when she was 19 – but has always worked.
She said: ‘As my son keeps saying to me, your generation is different to what it is nowadays. They just want handouts and that’s it.’
She added: ‘There are jobs if they want them but they don’t want that type of job, they want a nice cushy job.
‘If they had to get on their hands and knees and scrub floors like I had to, they would be there for about a day and that would be it.’
Mrs Swift said it is common also for young women to copy what they see: ‘It’s just a vicious circle, it just goes round and round, so somebody has to break that cycle somewhere.’
While information about sex and contraception did not used to be common – ‘when I was at school, we weren’t told about how babies came along’ – now, there is ‘no excuse’.
She said: ‘They can’t say, ‘Well, we weren’t told’. There’s plenty of information for them nowadays, not like I had when I was younger anyway.’
But Yvonne Robertson, 39, of Grimsby, disagreed, telling MailOnline: ‘It’s not taught very well, sexual education, these days, is it?
‘There’s boredom as well – there’s not much for adults to do, let alone teenage children. And there’s a lot of crime and drugs in this area and it just seems to stem and follow from that, doesn’t it?’
Ms Robertson, currently unemployed, added: ‘A lot goes on behind closed doors. No one really knows, do they? And obviously, underprivileged parents and it sort of impacts on the children, doesn’t it?’
Teens lack authority in their life as well, she said: ‘You’re not allowed to discipline them the same way as you used to. That’s a factor in it.
‘Respect and morals and principles of life have just gone out the window, that’s not there anymore. And the community spirit’s not there anymore…
‘You can’t even leave your door open these days without someone nicking something.’
But she does not think there is a stigma around being a teen mother anymore: ‘It’s so common these days, it’s not like back in the day when you used to get bullied about it and stuff. It’s the normal now, wouldn’t you say?’
The report showed that the rate of violent crime and drug use among 15-to-64-year-olds and alcohol dependency among those aged 18 and over are all higher than for England overall.
On top of that, 7.7 per cent of 16-to-17-year olds are not in education, employment or training, including those whose activities are completely unknown, the report from March last year adds.
This is also higher than the rate in England overall (5.2 per cent), according to the report, which annually assesses health and wellbeing in the borough.
The report itself admitted this can push teens into early motherhood: ‘Young people who are not engaged in education, employment or training are at greater risk of a range of negative outcomes, including poor health, depression and early parenthood.’
A 21-year-old mother, who did not want to be named, said: ‘There was a lass in my year that was pregnant at prom – she was very proud of it. There’s no stigma around it at all which I find shocking.’
She explained: ‘I find it shocking because there are a lot of risks of having young pregnancies.
‘There’s not the financial support anymore, I know a lot of it’s being clamped down in terms of the benefits and stuff, so it’s the people that are getting pregnant that don’t have the money, that don’t have the housing and don’t have a job to provide for the child – that concerns me quite deeply.’
She herself has had problems with housing. Looking to move out of her flat and into a house when she fell pregnant, they turned up at one viewing, having been told two people would be there – but there were actually 40.
On contraception since the age of 14, she said her mother was always honest about sex education – and it is not taught badly in schools: ‘It’s definitely not lack of information – the school programmes around this area are very well-informed…
‘They inform you of the areas where you can go for help if you were ever stuck in that situation.’
Instead, she said: ‘I think it’s more societal pressures where people are frowning upon abortions and condoms and there’s a lot of stigma around guys wanting to use them because, ‘It’s not the full experience’.’
She reckoned Covid might be responsible for an overall slump in teen pregnancy rates: ‘A lot of people were out drinking, partying, clubbing and then obviously one-night stands can lead towards it. Throughout Covid, you couldn’t do that.’
Another local Louise said: ‘I definitely think the schools are not being more specific on relationships and sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy as well. At a young age, they’re not going into enough detail.’
She said: ‘I think it’s more to do with the importance of contraception rather than the ability to get hold of it because there are a lot of health centres that do supply.’
A 24-year-old woman, who did not wish to be named, said: ‘I feel like some parents don’t advertise to their kids that it’s not safe for children to have children.
‘I don’t feel like it’s out there enough that it shouldn’t be like that, you should be a bit older. Live your life a little bit first, see what your environment’s like, especially in Grimsby, and then maybe think about it.
‘I’m 24 and I don’t have children, I don’t want children yet because of how the world is, especially in Grimsby.’
She explained it is hard to be able to work to provide for your children in Grimsby: ‘Lack of jobs especially, it’s hard to get a job.’
She has ‘a lot’ of friends who got pregnant as teenagers: ‘They find it quite challenging because they’re single mums as well.’
It is expensive to bring up a child now too, she said: ‘Nappies and milk and clothes!’
Of Grimsby, she said: ‘I find it’s just a scary, scary place to live, I don’t want to bring a baby into this world.
‘The cost of living, wars going on in different places, you don’t know if it’s going to come here, everything.’
There is a lot of anti-social behaviour too, she said: ‘Even when I was younger, I could play on the front of the house, I wouldn’t let my kids play on the front of the house now, absolutely not.’
A 21-year-old mother, who did not want to be named, felt more information about ‘the specifics of contraception and why it’s good’ should be made available to teen girls.
Telling MailOnline her sister was a teen mother, she said: ‘Contraception wasn’t really something our family talked about until after that. So, I think having that option in schools.’
She added: ‘I feel like people who aren’t really buckled down in school as well who are not paying attention to a lot of the information that is there already.’
People can be critical of teen mothers in Grimsby, she said: ‘There’s a lot of judgement as well, I’d say definitely, I mean, I’m not the youngest mum you can get, I’m only 21 with two kids, but definitely, you get some judgement.’
She herself was 18 when she first became pregnant – but felt that age was ‘not really young’: ‘I was out of school, did all my education and stuff.’
She added: ‘I was at a place in my life where I needed the maturity and I was already quite there in my life anyway, heading towards that way, so having a child just fixed it for me and then obviously, then came this one.’
The mother-of-two finished: ‘From my view of how my life has been, I was already forced to grow up from a lot younger, before my kids so I was just at a place where having kids was a good thing for me, just to set my life a bit more.’
North East Lincolnshire Council was contacted for comment.
