Australia's mothers and babies, 2009

The Australian Institute of Health & Welfare has just released Australia's mothers and babies 2009, a report which shows that Australian women continue to wait longer to have children. The average age of women who gave birth in Australia has increased steadily from 29.0 years in 2000 to reach 30.0 years in 2009.  Approximately 41.6% of women were having their first baby and the average age for first time mothers was 27.


In 2009, 294,540 women gave birth to 299,220 babies in Australia. The increase in births continued, with 2,295 more births (0.8%) than reported in 2008. Smoking while pregnant was reported by 14.5% of all mothers, by 37.0% of teenage mothers and almost half (49.6%) of Indigenous mothers.  In 2009, 863 women had a homebirth, representing 0.3% of all women who gave birth.