More new mums shun marriage, birth data shows

New mothers are older and more educated than those before them – and not all are bothered about getting married before having children.

Women are opting for motherhood at an older age according to the National Obstetric Information System’s 2019 report, where the majority of deliveries were carried out by mothers in the 30-34 maternal age group, consistent with previous years’ trends.

Over 65% of all delivering mothers in 2019 were married, but for comparison, this figure stood at 71.8% in 2015. Since then, each year marks a downward trend in the number of married mothers.

Underage pregnancies remain on a steady decline too. While 86 deliveries from underage mothers were recorded in 1999, 51 were registered in 2019.

At 53.2%, most mothers who delivered in 2019 were first-time mums; around 33% had already given birth to their first child, and for 9% of delivering mothers, 2019 saw them give birth to their third child.

There was a dramatic increase in Caesarean section operations over the years. Over 30% of all deliveries in 2019 were Caesarean section operations, translating to 1,353 operations. At the turn of the millennium, 23% of all deliveries were carried out through a Caesarean section operation, at 994 total deliveries.

Another consistent trend is the level of education among new mothers. In 2019, 42.4% of all mothers reported attaining a tertiary level of education, marking the highest percentage on record. Those with a secondary level of education are the second-largest cohort at 26.4% of mothers.

No maternal deaths have been recorded since 2010. Between 2000 and 2019, only four maternal deaths have been registered in Malta.

There were a total of 4,379 deliveries throughout the Malta and Gozo, or 4,455 births. From these, 4,439 were live births, and 16 were stillbirths.

The number of births and deliveries since 2000 is seeing a relatively upward trend. There was a decrease in the number of births between 2018 and 2019, but overall, 2019 saw the third highest number of deliveries from the previous nine years.

Over 98% of all deliveries were singleton deliveries, at a total of 4,306. There were 70 twin deliveries and three triplet deliveries, at 1.6% and 0.01% of all deliveries respectively.

In 2019 there were 124 mothers registered as having made use of assisted reproduction (ART), including ovulation stimulation, IVF and ICSI.

Maternal lifestyles

The absolute majority of pregnant mothers did not smoke, drink, or make use of illicit drugs, but over 18% of mothers chose to smoke throughout their pregnancy. From these, 10.1% of mothers opted for one to three cigarettes per day, while 8.2% smoked upwards of three per day.

Cigarette consumption has consistently been the most popular vice among expecting mothers when compared to alcohol or illicit drug consumption, despite being associated with well-established risks for adverse perinatal outcomes. In fact, the average birth weight of babies born to mothers that reported smoking at some point in their pregnancy was 3.1kg, while 9.2% of these babies weighed in at less than 2.5kg.