Northern Ireland has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in the European Union, a new report has confirmed.
More than 1,700 babies are born to teenage mothers in the North every year, according to a consultation document prepared for Ms Bairbre de Brun, Minister of Health.
The report by the department's working group on teenage pregnancy and parenthood, entitled Myths And Reality, also said this figure has been steadily increasing since 1995.
The main findings of the study were that under-20s in deprived areas were most likely to become mothers, and there were strong links between teenage pregnancy, truancy and drug problems.
It said ignorance was a key risk factor and suggested well-balanced sex education and more accessible contraceptive clinics as ways of helping combat the problem.
The teenage birth-rate peaked at over 2000 in the mid-1980s and then declined until 1995.
By 1998, the last year for which there are figures, there were 1,734 such births.
One of the report's authors, Prof Dorothy Wittington of the University of Ulster, said it highlighted the fact that Britain had the highest figures for teenage pregnancy in the EU and that figures for the North were "comparable to those in the UK".
She said there was no one single explanation for this. "There are no hard and fast reasons why. It's a very tangled area," she said.
Over the last two decades the marriage patterns of teenage mothers have altered dramatically. In 1981, 66.9 per cent were married: by 1998 only 6.6 per cent were married.
In 1998 at least 1,581 women from the North travelled to England for abortions; 305 were under 20.
The report said these figures were probably underestimated as many women would not give their home addresses.
Speaking at the report's launch Ms de Brun stressed its importance as a foundation for further action.
"Teenage pregnancy is not good for the teenager or the child. Teenage mothers are less likely to finish their education, less likely to find a good job and more likely to end up alone and bringing up their children in poverty," she said.
"We have to help teenagers to understand and avoid the risks of under-age, unprotected and uninformed sex.
"I hope these recommendations will form the basis for concerted action to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies here and also to address the difficulties which young people and their families face during pregnancy and after birth."
Ms de Brun noted: "Young people don't know how easy it is to get pregnant and how hard it is to be a parent". The report called for a number of initiatives to better inform teenagers.
Among these were the drawing up of guidelines for relationship and sex education classes in schools and the inclusion of information in magazines aimed at young men.
A number of teenagers were interviewed for the report, many of whom were already mothers. One girl said her boyfriend wanted to sleep with her and had said he would not wear a condom. "But if I drink vinegar I won't get pregnant," she said.