Baby boom as world goes bust

While the global recession took the financial fun out of much of the year, it did little to dampen the ardour of Taranaki couples.

The province is in the grip of a baby boom, with 1623 of the wriggling wonders born in the region in the year to September.

The figure is the highest since 1995 when 1633 live births were recorded in Taranaki.

Staff at Taranaki Base Hospital's postnatal ward had several theories about what might be behind the boom, but one was the clear favourite.

"It's the recession," a midwife said.

"People seem to think nobody wants to have children when money is a bit tight, but actually the opposite happens because people aren't going out as much."

There are other theories.

Particularly loyal Taranaki folk could have been motivated into parenthood to help the province cope with an expected shortage of skilled labour in the next 20 years.

Other couples may have been prompted into action by Plunket's helpline going to 24-hour service early in the new year or alarming reports the country's elderly population was increasing faster than its young. Whatever their reasons, or lack of them, there were plenty of exhausted new mums and proud dads at the ward yesterday.

Enrolled nurse Merry Sorensen said eight mums and seven babies were in the ward, with a set of twins in the neonatal unit.

"One day last week we had 13 mums and babies," she said.

"I've been here 20 years and it's as busy as I've ever seen it."

Hawera Hospital was also feeling the effects of the boom, Mrs Sorensen said.

"We've got a mum here who we can't transfer back to Hawera because they don't have room for her."

The figures, released on Tuesday by Statistics New Zealand, revealed a drop in birth rates in all but three regions.

There were 63,160 live births registered in New Zealand in the September 2009 year, down 1380 (2 percent) on the previous year.

Wellington and Otago joined Taranaki in bucking the national trend.

With 1623 births and just 904 deaths recorded in Taranaki over the same period, the region's population potentially grew by 719.

Nationally, 28,680 deaths were registered, down 2 percent from 29,130 last year.

- © Fairfax NZ News