Teenage pregnancies halved over past decade

  • 13/04/2019

A new report reveals teenage pregnancies have halved in the past decade.

The rate of teen births has been steadily declining since 2008, with just over 2300 having babies in 2017.

The College of Midwives says that's encouraging, and there could be several reasons for it.

"While the number of women giving birth has reduced by just under 5,000 pregnancies since 2008, there are lots of really encouraging signs we can take from this new data," says the Ministry's Clare Perry, Group Manager, Health System and Improvement. 

"The new report shows most women are aged between 25 and 34 when they give birth. The number of teenage pregnancies has halved between 2008 and 2017." 

Perry says it's also encouraging to see fewer women are smoking during the initial stage of pregnancy and immediately after birth.

"In 2017, there were two thousand fewer women smoking when they first registered with a primary maternity care provider than there were in 2008," she says.

"According to the report, there was also a drop in the number of women smoking a fortnight after birth." 

In 2017, 1855 fewer women were recorded as smoking two weeks after giving birth than in 2008. 

The overall birth rate for all age groups has fallen, except for women aged 40 and over, which showed a significant increase.

Click here for more on the Report on Maternity.

Newshub.