A report released by the AIHW, has shown that a record number of babies were born in Australia in 2021 – with the national birth rate jumping back up to 6.1%.
More than 315,700 babies were born in Australia in 2021 – the highest annual figure on record.
All that time spent in lockdown together, working on renovations, and ‘staycationing,’ led to the dramatic reversal of a decade long decline of 0.8%, with Australian birth rates dropping from 6.4% in 2010 to 5.6% in 2020.
The AIHW noted that women were continuing to give birth later in life, with one in four women aged 35 years or older, yet despite the health risks of pregnancy later in life, more than 9 in 10 of their babies were born at-term and at a healthy weight.
AIHW spokesperson Ms Deanna Eldridge, said that overall, the proportions of pre-term and low birthweight babies have remained stable over the past decade and noted that increasing ages were consistent with previous trends.
“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,” said Ms Eldridge.
In general, more Australian mothers, including First Nations mothers, were also accessing antenatal care.
In 2021, 80% of all mothers accessed antenatal care in their first trimester, and 95% had five or more antenatal care visits, while in 2020, 71% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers accessed antenatal care in the first trimester of pregnancy, and 87% had five or more antenatal care visits.
Mothers aged 35 years and above were more likely to attend an antenatal visit in the first trimester (81%) compared with those aged 20 years and under (68%).
‘We also continued to see a consistent downward trend in the number of women who smoked while pregnant” Ms Eldridge said.
“In 2021, 8.7% of mothers reported smoking during their pregnancy – down from 13% in 2011. Furthermore, more than one in five mothers who smoked at the start of their pregnancy quit after the first 20 weeks.”
Another AIHW report, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers and babies, released at the end of May, showed that the birth rate for First Nations people remained higher than the national average at 7.5%, while the average age of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers was still lower at 26.5 years – though up from 24.9 years in 2005.
Approximately 11% of First Nations mothers were aged under 20 years – down from 22% in 2005.
In 2020, there were 14,605 babies born to 14,384 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers in Australia, or 5.1% of all births, while more than 277,600 non-indigenous women gave birth to around 281,600 babies in 2020.
Yet only 17,014, just 2.2% of the 762,794 registered health professionals in Australia were First Nations people. Given the higher birth rates and importance of culturally appropriate care, the child to practitioner ratio has been highlighted as an issue in addressing ongoing racial inequity in the Australian healthcare system.