Maternity Tables 2013

The Maternity Tables 2013 present annual health statistics about women giving birth, their pregnancy and childbirth experience, and the characteristics of the live-born babies in New Zealand. The focus is on births in 2013.

A summary of the key findings is presented below. The excel file includes a further description on births in 2013 as well as selected graphs.

Key findings about births in 2013

Overview

• In 2013, 59,227 women gave birth and 59,620 babies were live-born.
• The birth rate was 65.6 per 1000 females of reproductive age.
• The number of births and birth rate increased from 2004 to 2008 and has since been on a decreasing trend.

Women giving birth

• Women giving birth in 2013 were predominantly in their late 20s and early 30s.
• Almost half of women giving birth were European.
• At least half of young, Māori and Pacific women giving birth resided in the most deprived areas.
• Birth rates varied across the country.
• 2 of every 5 women giving birth were first time mothers.
• 45% of women giving birth had a healthy weight at first registration with a Lead Maternity Carer (LMC).
• 13% of women who gave birth reported smoking at two weeks after birth.
• The vast majority of women received primary maternity care from a community LMC.

Labour and birth

• Two-thirds of women had a spontaneous vaginal birth and a quarter had a caesarean section.
• A quarter of women giving birth in 2013 had an induction, their labour augmented or an epidural.
• Most women gave birth at a secondary or tertiary maternity facility.

Babies

• There was little change in average birthweight of babies.
• Median gestation at birth was 39 weeks.
• Most babies were exclusively or fully breastfed.