Older parents on the rise (in Australia) as babies take a back seat

MORE and more Australians are waiting until they are older to become parents.

There were 301,647 babies born in 2011 and more than 50,000 new parents over the age of 40, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Mothers aged 45-49 and fathers aged 50 and over were the fastest growing parental groups. And for the second year running, the number of babies born to women aged 40 and over was greater than the number of births to teenagers.

Some 11,344 babies were born to a teenage mother across the nation but 1,461 more were born to a mother aged 40 or over. This difference is expected to increase in future years, according to Bjorn Jarvis, Director of Demography at the ABS. "There are many different reasons to explain this trend, but with education, employment and the labour market, women are more often choosing to have children later in life,'' he said.

In 1970, 50.9 babies were born to every 1000 teenage girls - compared to a rate of 11.7 for women aged 40 and over. By 2011 the fertility rate for teenagers had shrunk to 15.6 while it had grown to 15.9 for older Australian mothers. Alicia Evans, 41, from West Pennant Hills in Sydney, gave birth to daughter Lyla two weeks ago and couldn't be happier to be one of Australia's older mums. "Lyla is my third child. I had two children in my 30s and always wanted a third,'' she said. With a seven-year gap between baby two and three and a wealth of child rearing experience, things are easier the third time around.

"The kids are at school and I am much more confident that I was as a first time mum. I don't get as worried,'' she said.

Age was not a concern for her obstetrician either, with no additional tests or checks required because of Ms Evans' age. And Lyla is not alone in having an older mother, with a growing number of Ms Evans friends having a baby in their 40s. "One friend in her 40s had her baby the day before me. And my sister has a baby last year when she was 43,'' she said.

There are still many young teenagers having children, however. Nearly 400 girls under the age of 15 became mothers last year (a drop of 408 from the year before) and 81 boys under the age of 15 became fathers (a jump from 76 the year before). The nationality of our parents is also changing. Babies born to Australian mothers declined by 453 while overseas-born mothers increased by 4,131. Similarly, Australian fathers decreased by 800 while overseas-born fathers increased by 3,800. Indian-born parents were the biggest rising nationality, with an increase of 1,141 mothers and 1,116 fathers.

Nationally the number of births increased by 3,714 from the previous year, with 3,136 of these in NSW. Queensland, South Australia and the ACT all saw a decline in the number of births, with a decline of 1,214 in Queensland, Blacktown in NSW saw Australia's biggest baby boom, with an increase of 466 babies born between 2010 and 2011.

News.com.au

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