Teenage pregnancies have decreased, numbers of older mothers have rised, and deliveries have gone up 1.8% overall, NHS Digital’s 2015/16 report on deliveries in English NHS hospitals has revealed.
The annual Hospital Maternity Activityreport publishes delivery numbers including woman’s age, delivery method, and place of delivery.
The number of deliveries for mothers aged under 20 years has reduced by 49% over the last ten years, from 43,572 to 22,032, it was shown.
However, deliveries for mothers aged 40 and over have risen 21.5% in ten years from 20,530 to 24,942.
There were 648,107 deliveries in NHS hospitals during 2015/16, an increase of 1.8% from 2014/15.
The proportion of spontaneous deliveries has dropped from 64.8% in 2005/06 to 60% in 2015/16. Caesarean deliveries increased from 24 to 27% in the same period.
The data in the report are taken from the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data warehouse, which contains records of all inpatient admissions, outpatient appointments, and A&E attendances at NHS hospitals in England.
