METRO Tuesday, September 22, 2009 D 16 South Great Georges St, Dublin 2 7 ArbourfieldTerrace,Windy Arbour, Dundrum, Dublin 14 Young people too shy to talk contraceptionBy JOANNE AHERN At the launch of the Third World Contraception Day (WCD) which takes place on Saturday were models Julie Kavanagh and Mark Toal Lennon, Targeting 18-25 year olds, the theme of this years WCD campaign is your Life, your Voice: Talk Contraception Picture: Fennells Dirty look broke shepherds Asbo A SHEPHERD breached his Asbo by giving a passer-by a dirty look. Jeremy Awdry, 60, also admitted flouting another order banning his unruly flock from grazing on common land. Dont give people dirty looks, a judge told him at Gloucester Crown Court in the UK. Awdrys day in court cost him 115 (127). He had the right to graze his 500-strong flock taken away last year after he let them stray into gardens. He admitted using his sheep as a means of intimidating or causing difficulty for people he had reason to fall out with. Black sheep: Awdry EMBARRASSMENT and fear of be- ing labelled promiscuous are still pre- venting many young people from talking about contraception, accord- ing to Dr Shirley McQuade, medical director at the Dublin Well Woman Centre. She was speaking ahead of the third World Contraception Day, which takes place on Saturday. The Your Life, Your Voice: Talk Contraception campaign is aimed at 18 to 25-year-olds and also aims to improve the level of education on re- productive and sexual health. New research has shown that young people are more likely to have un- planned and irregular sexual activity than older people and are generally less knowledgeable about how to use contraception effectively. Pointing towards earlier research which showed that 56 per cent of Irish people did not use any form of con- traception the first time they had sex, Dr McQuade said: We are regularly seeing cases of young men and wom- en who have either been misinformed or uneducated on the contraception options available to them. It is vital that our young people be given the education to make informed decisions about such a serious issue. She added that there are more than 220,000 unplanned pregnancies across the world every day. Niall Behan, chief executive of the Irish Family Planning Association, said that sex is a normal part of life and that young people should be encouraged to talk openly about it. He added: Education and aware- ness about contraceptive use empow- ers young people to make safer choices about safe sex. However, services also need to be much more responsive to the needs of young people. EU wide research has shown that Irish people typically look to their friends for sex education 58 per cent of Irish people said they looked Chefs offer nights of food and wine IF COOKING is your passion, then a trip to Clontarf Castle for their upcoming Celebrity Chef Nights may be just the treat for you. A Taste of Clontarf, a celebration of fine food and wine, will be hosted by celebrity chefs such as Neven Maguire, Oliver Dunne and Dylan McGrath. The nights will run from September 29 to December 27. Pius Furlong, General Manager of Clontarf Castle Hotel, said: This is a fantastic opportunity to see how the experts do it and learn a few tricks of the trade as well as sample some of their finest delicacies. Passionate about food: Maguire Police question ditch fall woman A WOMAN who sparked a five-day police search after claiming she had fallen down a ditch has been arrested on suspicion of wasting police time. Tracy Gough, 29, from Ludlow in the UK, called police from her mobile phone on August 8 and said she was trapped down a hole in Cockshutt, Shropshire. A search was called off five days later when Ms Gough walked into the A&E department at a Telford hospital. After the call to police saying she was injured and trapped down a hole, Ms Goughs mobile phone battery ran out after 20 minutes. Called police: Gough Blood pressure linked to more premature babies PREMATURE births are 16 per cent more common now than 25 years ago, new research has found. High blood pressure was the main factor linked to early labour, while diabetes was recognised as playing an increasing role. Medical advances mean survival rates have significantly improved, however, with the number of baby deaths associated with premature birth halving. University of Edinburgh researchers analysed data from nearly 90,000 births in Scotland between 1980 and 2005. By 2005, the number of premature births had risen to 63 per 1,000 births. Scientists hope to develop better treatments for expectant mothers by exploring trends in the data. There has been a seven-fold increase in premature births where the mothers were diabetic before becoming pregnant which is linked to obesity. Premature births linked to gestational diabetes, where expectant mothers develop diabetes during pregnancy, also increased by four times. Professor Jane Norman, director of the Tommys Centre for Maternal and Fetal Health Research, said: The increase in survival rates for babies born prematurely backs up decisions by doctors to medically induce births to prevent potential complications. More coming early: Babies towards friends, while 37 per cent of respondents said that they turn to both magazines and their mothers for in- formation. When questioned about their reasons for not having sex, 29 per cent of Irish men said they were afraid their partner would get pregnant. Some 23 per cent of women stated their fear of becoming pregnant as a reason not to have sex. Meanwhile, approximately 79 per cent of women personally chose the form of contraception used, the research found. Further information on World Con- traception day can be found at www. mycontraception.ie. index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html