946 births in the April-June quarter

A total of 946 births (933 deliveries) were registered in the Maltese islands during the second quarter of this year - exactly the same number of deliveries and births registered during the same period last year, the national obstetric information system (NOIS) reported yesterday.

The statistics, compiled by Dr Lina Janulova of NOIS and released by the Department of Information, show that in the second quarter of this year, the greatest number of deliveries (38 per cent), occurred in the age group 25 to 29 years while the lowest number of deliveries (one per cent) occurred in the age group of less than 15 years.

There were no deliveries in the 45+ age group. The minimum age of the mothers was 14 years while the maximum age was 44 years. The most frequent age at delivery was 28 years.

Comparing the second quarters of last year and this, shows that the rate of deliveries declined by two per cent in the age group 15 to 19 years and by four per cent in the age group 25 to 29 years.

Also in the age groups 30 to 34 and 35 to 39 years, there was an increase in the rate of deliveries by four per cent and two per cent respectively, this quarter.

For the second quarter of this year, there were 14 per cent (133) of all deliveries that occurred to mothers who were never married (single) while 85 per cent (789) of deliveries occurred to mothers who were married once (married, widowed, separated).

The remaining one per cent (11) of deliveries had no marital status specified.

According to data registered in NOIS, in the second quarter of this year, of the 133 mothers who have never been married, 98 per cent (130) received support at home to raise the infant while one mother did not have support. In the remaining two mothers this data was not specified.

92 per cent (863) of all deliveries this quarter, occurred to women of Maltese nationality while six per cent (59) were non-Maltese. The nationality of the remaining 11 was not specified.

There were two per cent (20) of mothers who smoked either one to three cigarettes per day or more during pregnancy in the second quarter of this year. A comparison of these figures to the same quarter of 2002, shows that the smoking habits of mothers decreased by three per cent in this year's quarter.

According to NOIS, in the second quarter of this year, there was one mother who was registered as being an insulin dependent diabetic before this pregnancy while there were two mothers recorded with non-insulin dependent diabetes.

In addition, there were a total of 20 mothers registered with gestational diabetes, who were controlled without the use of insulin.

For the second quarter of this year, there were a total of 920 (99 per cent) singleton and one per cent (13) twin deliveries.