A record number of births in Australia but it's not a baby boom

It's a 6.7 per cent increase on the previous year, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

The highest number of births in 2021 were in NSW with 99,309 followed by 81,789 in Victoria, 63,383 in Qld, 34,676 in WA, 20,181 in SA, 6,081 in Tasmania, 6,460 in ACT and 3,826 in the NT.

But don't call this a baby boom.

Demographer Dr Liz Allen said this was a 'blip' or 'hiccup' in the numbers.

Dr Allen, a demographer from Australian National University, said the rise in births in 2021 could be attributed to women who had planned to have a baby but delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"People haven't decided to have babies when they wouldn't have otherwise, but instead they've shifted the timing of the childbearing," Dr Allen said.

In 2021, around one in four women who gave birth were aged 35 years of age or older, according to the AIHW data.

Across Australia 38.2 percent of births in 2021 were a caesarean section birth.

Not many women chose to give birth without pain relief, with 97 per cent of mums having some type of anesthesia.

Dr Allen said there was a widespread belief Australia would experience a baby boom during lockdown because people 'would have nothing better to do'.

But it wasn't the reality, she said.

"For a baby boom to occur we need more people partnering, not just individuals having more sex," she said.

"If anything in the long run, we're likely to have missing babies, babies that will never be born as a result of the lockdowns and the inability for people to mix and to form relationships."

IN OTHER NEWS:

"Average maternal age continues to increase for first-time mothers (from 28.4 years of age in 2011 to 29.7 years of age in 2021)," AIHW spokesperson Deanna Elridge said.

This was consistent with previous trends of women giving birth later in life.

"We are seeing an increase in people unable to have children because of that delay in commencing childbearing," Dr Allen said.

"But also for those that do have children [they] are on average having fewer children because of this constrained window."

Despite increased health risks for mothers aged over 35, the report found more than nine in 10 babies were born at a healthy birthweight and at term.

Dr Allen acknowledged that the 300,000 plus women that welcomed a newborn would have done so in a "period of great socioeconomic and logistical stress".

"This would have placed great stress on women during an already stressful time," she said.

"The sheer fact that women were able to access vital appointments throughout their pregnancy and maintain their health is quite remarkable particularly given there were travel restrictions [and] there were restrictions around the number of people that could attend appointments."