Births, fertility and breastfeeding 2018
Produced by the
Public Health (Strategic Policy, Planning and Performance)
Authored by
Statistics Jersey
and published on
21 Mar 2019
Prepared internally, no external cost
Summary
Topics covered include: births and crude birth rate, over time; fertility rates (general, total, age-specific), over time; age of mothers, including teenage mothers; caesarean sections; birth weight; breastfeeding patterns (at discharge; at 6-8 weeks; at 9-12 months) and infant mortality
The report findings include:
- there were 942 live births notified in Jersey during 2018; this was the lowest number of births recorded since 2002
- the age group with the highest age-specific fertility rates (number of live births per 1,000 women of each age group) in Jersey was the cohort of women aged 30-34 years
- the proportion of births by caesarean section remained similar to previous years, and continued to be higher in Jersey (33%) than England (27%) ; older mothers were more likely to have an elective caesarean section
- 8% of newborns were classified as ’low’ birthweight, a similar rate when compared to England
- the proportion of mothers aged 35 and over in Jersey increased slightly from around a quarter (24%) in 2001 to three in ten (30%) in 2018
- 76% of babies were breastfed at discharge from maternity care
- three out of five babies (60%) were being breastfed at 6-8 weeks of age
- at the 9 month to 1 year check, around one in four (24%) babies were receiving breastmilk
- over the period 2015-2017 infant mortality in Jersey was 1.7 deaths in infants aged under 1 year of age, per 1,000 live births; similar to the rate of 3.9 per 1,000 live births in England
Births, fertility and breastfeeding, 2018
gov.je