‘Late’ babies healthy

Press, 27 May 1981, Page 17

‘Late’ babies healthy

NZPA London i Older women are setting I the pace in Britain’s renewed ' baby boom. | And the health of their ; children — notoriously more | at risk than those born to i younger mothers — is better (than ever. Delayed motherhood, among Britain’s professional i women, who wait until their thirties before they start a family, is highlighted in fi- ' gures issued this week by the • Office of Population Cen- ■ suses and Surveys. 1 . Gynaecologist Dame i Josephine Barnes suggested to the "Daily Mail” that one ; of the prime factors behind the substantial drop in i deaths within the first week ; of life among babies born to

women aged 35 and over was the reduction in cigarette smoking within the higher socio-economic groups. Perinatal (within the first 1 , week) mortality rates in this maternal age group has fallen to 21 in every 1000 births compared with 29 three years earlier. Dame Josephine said: “Another reason for this heartening reduction in mortality rates is the fact that the vast majority of deliveries for older women — 98 per cent — occur in hospital.” The statistics, for all births in England and Wales during 1979, show a marked fall in numbers of babies born to the lower socio-economic groups.