Ireland has highest birth rate in EU

[Posted: Tue 16/12/2008 by Olivia Fens - www.irishhealth.com]

Ireland has the highest birth rate of any EU country, according to a national statistics report released by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).

The National Perinatal Reporting System (NPRS) gathers information on approximately 65,000 birth records every year from 22 hospitals and 20 independent midwives. The data collected relates to topics such as morbidity, mortality, and socio-economic information.

According to the latest report, which covers 2006, 65,810 babies were born in that year, a 7% increase on 2005's figure. These births included 958 sets of twins, 17 sets of triplets and one set of quadruplets.

One-quarter of all babies were delivered by Caesarean section. This compares to a Caesarean section rate of 26% in 2005 and 22% in 2002.

There was a significant drop in homebirths attended by independent domiciliary midwives in 2006 – 170 compared to 288 in 2002.

The average birth weight of babies born in 2006 was 3.47kg (7.6lbs).

According to the NPRS, almost one-third of women having babies were single mothers. The average age of single mothers in 2006 was almost 27 years and the average age of all mothers was 31 years.

Less than half of women reported breastfeeding (44%) in 2006, which was similar to that reported for 2005. However, this was an increase compared to the breastfeeding rates in 2002 (41%) and 1999 (36%).

Approximately seven out of every 1,000 babies were stillborn or died soon after birth in 2006, compared to 8.4 per 1,000 in 2002.