Women aged between 30 and 35 gave birth to more babies than those of any other age group last year, highlighting the rising maternal age, a study has shown.

This was the first time that the relative majority of babies, 33 per cent, were born to mothers in that age bracket – up from 31 per cent in the previous three years.

Last year there were no babies born to mothers under 15, compared to the six born the previous year.

This emerged through the 2011 annual report issued by the National Obstetric Information System that yesterday also released a report entitled Trends in Obstetrics Malta 2001-2010.

The latter report showed that, over the past decade, the rate of multiple deliveries increased from just under one per cent in 2001 to just over two per cent in 2010 – a figure that remained consistent last year when there were 69 twin and seven triplet deliveries.

This was mainly due to the increase in assisted reproductive therapy such as in-vitro fertilisation.

The report also confirmed the growing trend of Caesarean sections that increased from 24 per cent in 2001 to 34 per cent last year.

The majority of babies, 61 per cent, were born through normal delivery. Almost eight per cent of babies were born prematurely.

The annual report showed that, last year, there were 4,311 births of which 28 were still births. A further 23 babies died after birth.

There was an increase in total births when compared to 4,036 in 2010. The vast majority of babies were born in hospital and the majority, 51 per cent, were boys.

Some 71 per cent of mothers were married and 52 per cent had their first child.

Data also showed that seven per cent, or 325 mothers, smoked during pregnancy last year while nine mothers drank alcohol and 25 used drugs.