Kent

Removing a wart from the toe isn't something that a child would be scared to tell their parent about. Pregnancy is. My daughter, now 38, told me, after a sex education lesson when a schoolgirl of about 14, that she was the only girl in her class who would not be afraid of telling their parents that they were pregnant.

Is it better that a child has somewhere to turn to in that situation if they really cannot tell their parents, or do we want them to try and deal with the problem themselves, based on old wives tales or trying to find someone who will do the deed off the radar?

I was five months pregnant before I told my parents and was disowned because I preferred to marry the baby's father than to go along with my father's plan to send me away until the baby was born and then have it adopted. Quite often the kids who do get pregnant are in family situations where they do not trust their parents to react in a non frightening way as they have little sign of caring from those parents.