More babies were born in Australia in 2021 than the previous year, while mothers continue to trend older.
According to the “Australia’s Mothers and Babies” report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), 315,705 babies were born in 2021, which is an increase of 6.7%.
AIHW spokesperson Deanna Eldridge said that while the 2021 birth rate (61 births per 1,000 women) was up from 2020 (56 births per 1,000 women), it was still below the peak in 2007 (66 births per 1,000 women).
Meanwhile, one in four women who gave birth was aged more than 35, reflecting a trend of mothers getting older.
“‘Average maternal age continues to increase for first-time mothers (from 28.4 years in 2011 to 29.7 years in 2021) and for those who have given birth previously (from 31.3 years in 2011 to 32.2 years in 2021),” Eldridge said.
As noted in the report, mothers over the age of 40 and mothers under the age of 20 risk pregnancy complications.
Regarding mothers aged under 20, Northern Territory had the highest percentage, with 5.3%, while Victoria and ACT had the joint lowest at 1.8%.
As for the jurisdictions with the highest percentage of women over 40 giving birth, Victoria had the largest percentage (5.0%), while Tasmania had the lowest (3.2%).
Smoking during pregnancy also decreased across the country.
“‘We continue to see a consistent downward trend in the number of women who smoke while pregnant,” Elridge said.
“In 2021, 8.7% of mothers reported smoking during their pregnancy — down from 13% in 2011. Furthermore, more than 1 in 5 mothers who smoked at the start of their pregnancy quit after the first 20 weeks.”
By jurisdiction, the Northern Territory had the largest percentage of people smoking during pregnancy (20.5%), while the ACT had the smallest (4.8%).
As noted in the report, smoking during pregnancy may result in health conditions like low birth weight for the baby and perinatal death.
As for women who drank alcohol in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, the Australia-wide figure was 2.7%.
Queensland was the jurisdiction with the highest percentage (5.9%), while ACT had the lowest (0.5%).
Similar to smoking, drinking alcohol during pregnancy may result in low birth weight as well as risk the development of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
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