One quarter of women who give birth in Australia are aged 35 or older, new research reveals.
And around 29 per cent of these women in this age bracket are giving birth for the first time.
The statistics are included in the Older mothers in Australia 2019 report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
The report shows that the number of babies born to older mothers is increasing. In 2019, there were more than 76,000 babies born to mothers aged 35 or over, compared to almost 69,000 in 2009 and 42,000 births in 1999.
“The average age of all women giving birth in Australia has been rising, including for first-time mothers. The average maternal age has increased from 27.1 years in 1979 to 30.8 years in 2019 for all mothers,” said AIHW spokesperson Ms. Bernice Cropper.
Since 1999 the rate of women aged 40-44 giving birth has almost doubled, with 15.5 mothers per 1000 in 2019 compared with 8.4 mothers per 1000 women in 1999.
The rate almost quadrupled among women aged 45-49, with 1.1 mothers per 1000 women in 2019 compared with 0.3 mothers in 1999.
Ms Cropper says there can be advantages to giving birth later in the life and the majority of older mothers will have uncomplicated pregnancies and healthy babies.
“However, women who give birth later in life are more at risk of complications, such as gestational diabetes during pregnancy and birth,” she said.
“Other complications include increased risk of gestational hypertension, pre-term birth and low birthweight babies. This is particularly seen for women giving birth for the first-time.”
Older mothers were less likely than younger mothers to smoke, and the majority received antenatal care in the first trimester of pregnancy. They were are also more likely to live in major cities and less likely to live in low socioeconomic areas.
