Aimee Horswill gave birth to Ella-Mai, now six months, just weeks before she sat her GCSEs
Labour"s ;teenage pregnancy strategy is falling hopelessly short of its aim to cut rates of conception by half.
Figures show that there were more pregnancies among girls under 18 in England in 2008 than there were in 2001.
Pregnancy rates among girls under 16 have been virtually unchanged in six years.
Childrens Secretary Ed Balls admitted yesterday that the Governments 1999 target of halving under-18 pregnancy rates by 2010 is out of reach.
In fact, at the current pace of progress, it would take another 25 years to get close to it.
In a new ;refreshed Teenage Pregancy Strategy yesterday, ministers put much of the blame for their failure on parents and promised more intensive efforts to spread contraception and sex education.
The most controversial new idea is the use of condom vending machines in colleges and schools. Ministers suggested parents needed to talk to their children about sex and relationships.
Yesterdays figures cover 2008 and show that 40.4 in every 1,000 girls between 15 and 17 became pregnant, a drop of 13.3 per cent on the 1998 rate of 46.6.
This is short even of Labours initial target, which was to reduce the rate by 15 per cent by 2004.
There were 38,750 pregnancies in England in the age group, the fewest in seven years but more than in 2001.
One face behind the statistics of those years is Aimee Horswill, who gave birth to Ella-Mai just weeks before she sat her GCSEs in 2006.
She was 15 and living on a council estate in South-East London when she became pregnant, claiming the Pill had failed.
But she and the babys father Triac Rydquist, who was 19 at the time, are still together and have moved to Derbyshire so Ella-Mai can grow up in the countryside.
Aimee said of her daughter: ;She has changed me completely. I cant imagine myself without her. I dont know how I would act Id probably be out tonight, being stupid, getting drunk.
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The Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, set down by Tony Blair in 2001, was supposed to halve under-18 pregnancy rates in England between 1998 and 2010.
But, despite the spending of 246million, it is nowhere near the target. The plan announced yesterday, Teenage Pregnancy Strategy: Beyond 2010, says ;promotion of condoms remains central to the overall effort.
It adds: ;A number of 2001. activities to improve condom use are being undertaken, including the piloting of vending machines in places which are accessible to target groups.
Such places may include schools, the document makes clear. Other plans include ;one-to-one consultations for girls and boys aged 15 and 16 in selected areas.
In these, counsellors will ;increase awareness and use of effective contraception among those who are, or are about to become, sexually active.
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