New Zealand demographers are scratching their heads over an increase in young women having babies. The proportion of girls aged 15 to 19 giving birth rose for the sixth year in a row in 2008, Statistics NZ reported, and the agency’s top demographer, Mansoor Khawaja, said young women appeared to be refusing to follow their mothers’ decisions to have few children later in life. “I reckon they just don’t agree with their mothers, which is not uncommon,” he said. The mothers of the baby-boomers had roughly four children on average, but the boomers have ended up with less than two children each, he pointed out.

Teenage mums are still only a small fraction of all teenagers (3.3 per cent) but the new figures confirm a trend that can no longer be dismissed as a temporary “blip”. However, there is still a long-term underlying trend towards women having babies later in life.… click here to read whole article and make comments