Yahoo Lifestyle Birthing in Australia: All the Facts
You’ve probably heard a few wide-sweeping claims get thrown around. “Every mum has an epidural these days”, or “Women aren’t having babies until they’re over 35 years old” may be the mutterings of older folk at family gatherings, but is there any truth to these claims?
Well, here’s your chance to wise up on the stats, because each year the Australian government puts together a report that measures all these sorts of things. At the end of last year, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released its 18th annual report on pregnancy and childbirth, Australia’s mothers and babies 2008. Here’s a snapshot of some of the main statistics – and some ammunition to take on those know-it-alls at Aunt Bessie’s 70th birthday party!
A baby boom
Yes, it’s true – we are having more babies than ever before! In 2008, there were 296,925 babies born in Australia. This was up from the 257,430 births in 1999. The number of births has been increasing each year since 2001, which was when the lowest number of births during the past decade was reported (254,326).
Drugs in labour
Many of us are having drugs administered to get through labour. In fact, of all the women who gave birth in 2008, 74.6 per cent had some type of pain relief. But contrary to popular belief, the big needle isn’t top choice. The most common type of analgesia in 2008 was actually nitrous oxide gas (used by 50.3 per cent of women). An epidural or caudal was used for 28.2 per cent of women, and a spinal or combined spinal-epidural for 3.6 per cent.
IVF
We all probably know at least one person who’s turned to IVF to get pregnant, but it’s still not that common. Only 3.2 per cent of the women who gave birth in 2008 had used assisted reproductive technology (ART). Their average age was 34 years and 63.6 per cent of them were having their first child.
Older mums?
Are we a nation of older mums? Not really. The average age of first-time mothers only increased from 27.1 years in 1999 to 28.2 years in 2008. Nationally, the proportion of teen mothers (younger than 20) dropped from 5.1 per cent in 1999 to 4.2 per cent in 2008.
However, the number of older mothers, aged 35 years and over, has continued to increase, going from 16.3 per cent in 1999 to 22.9 per cent in 2008. Mothers aged 40 and over made up 3.8 per cent of women giving birth in 2008 compared with 2.4 per cent in 1999, and there were 467 women aged 45 years and over who gave birth in 2008. Of these women aged 40 years and over, only one-quarter were having their first baby.
Smoking during pregnancy
It doesn’t seem the warnings against smoking during pregnancy are getting through to everyone. The proportion of women who smoked while pregnant was 16.2 per cent in 2008. The average age of mothers who smoked was 27 years, and of all teenage mothers, a large 39 per cent reported smoking while pregnant.
How many Australian mums were born overseas?
Australia prides itself on being a multicultural country and the figures reflect this. Of all the women who gave birth in Australian 2008, 25.3 per cent were born overseas. Mums born in the United Kingdom constituted 2.9 per cent of all new mothers, the same figure representing New Zealand-born mums. One in 10 women who gave birth was born in an Asian country (10.3 per cent).
Are most babies born late?
Have you ever been told that "most babies arrive late"? Well, that doesn’t seem to be the case. The average duration of pregnancy in Australia was 38.8 weeks, just shy of the full 40 weeks. Of women who gave birth in 2008, 91.7 per cent gave birth between 37 and 41 weeks. Preterm birth (before 37 completed weeks of gestation) occurred for 7.4 per cent of all mums and 0.9 per cent went to 42 weeks or more.
Twins
Feel like you see twins everywhere these days? You may be surprised to learn that multiple pregnancies only occurred for 1.6 per cent of all mothers in 2008. There were 4,703 multiple pregnancies – 4,639 of them involving twins, 62 involving triplets and just two involving quadruplets.
Caesarean births
There’s much talk about the huge increase in caesarean births and the figures back this up. In 2008, there were 90,765 caesareans, accounting for 31.1 per cent of women who gave birth – up from the 21.8 per cent of ladies who had surgical births in 1999.
So, who’s having the most caesareans? The rate of 41.3 per cent for women who were in private hospitals was higher than the rate of 28.1 per cent for those in public hospitals. The caesarean rate for mothers aged 35 to 39 years who gave birth in private hospitals was 46.6 per cent compared with 36.3 per cent for those in public hospitals.
Of mothers 40 years and older, 57.1 per cent in private hospitals had caesareans, compared with 41.9 per cent of those in public hospitals. The caesarean rate for first-time mums was 32 per cent in 2008, and around 83 per cent of those who had previously had a caesarean had a subsequent caesarean in 2008.
Tearing or episiotomy?
Worried that you’ll tear ‘down there’ while giving birth? The good news is that in 2008, approximately one in three mothers had an intact perineum following a vaginal birth. A first- or second-degree laceration or graze was reported in 44.7 per cent of women after vaginal birth and only one in 100 vaginal births (1.6 per cent) resulted in third- or fourth-degree lacerations.
Some cool fast facts
July & October: the months most births occurred during 2008
15 to 58: the age range of mums giving birth
Boys vs girls: There were more boys than girls born in 2008, with little fellas accounting for 51.4 per cent of all live births nationally
1000: the number of planned home births in 2008
6460: the number of women who gave birth in birth centres
3 days: The median postnatal hospital stay for mothers
24.8%: the percentage of mothers whose labour was induced
3.377kg: the mean birth weight for babies born in 2008
87.8%: the percentage of breech babies born via caesarean
