Mothers getting older

A third of babies are born by caesarean section

Just under a third, exactly 32.4 percent, of the 76,939 babies born in Austria last year were born by caesarean section, Statistics Austria reported on Friday. There are significant regional differences: the proportion was highest in Styria at 36.8 percent, ahead of Burgenland (34.5 percent). Vorarlberg had the fewest caesarean sections with 29.2 percent, followed by Upper Austria with 29.3 percent.

In 1995, when the type of delivery was first recorded statistically, the proportion was 12.4 percent. "The doubling of the C-section rate in just under 30 years is partly due to the fact that women are becoming mothers later and later and the probability of a C-section delivery increases with age," says Statistics Austria Director General Tobias Thomas. In the previous year, just over half of all caesarean sections were planned at 52.5 percent.

Mothers are getting older and older
With later motherhood, the probability of a caesarean section increases. Women aged 35 or older are 1.6 times more likely to have a caesarean section than women under 25, whose caesarean section rate is 25.3 percent.

The average age of women at the time of birth last year was 31.5 years, which is 3.5 years more than around 30 years ago. In the same period, the average age of women who became mothers for the first time increased from 26.2 to 30.3 years (plus 4.1 years).

Position of the child is decisive
A key indicator for a caesarean delivery is the position of the child in the womb. A caesarean section was performed in more than half of the cases (55.7 percent) with an irregular cephalic position, and in the vast majority of cases with a pelvic presentation or transverse presentation (94.7 and 98.7 percent respectively). A caesarean section was also performed for the majority of multiple births (79.7 percent).

The majority of children (98.3 percent) were born in a hospital. For 186 live births, the mothers opted for a maternity home or a midwife's practice. 1,006 babies (1.3 percent) were born at home, 35 were born on the way to hospital. Around five percent of single births and 57 percent of multiple births were premature, 92.9 percent were born on schedule, 6.8 percent premature and 0.2 percent "transferred".

A newborn girl weighed an average of 3,260 grams and was 50.4 centimeters tall. Boys were slightly heavier at 3387 grams and also taller at 51.1 cm. Multiple births are still very rare - only 2.8 percent were born as twins or triplets.