East Lancashire baby boom as mums wait for family

9:29am Wednesday 23rd July 2008

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THE latest official figures show that fertility rates around the country are the highest for 34 years.

Here in East Lancashire the indications are that we are experiencing something of a ‘baby boom’ with the rising numbers of older mums being seen as one of the main reasons.

Women who have decided for career reasons to delay getting pregnant until their late 30s and early 40s, or who perhaps may be into a second marriage and want to start a ‘new’ family are a key factor in the rise.

Over the last decade, the number of births to mothers aged 40 and over has nearly doubled from 12,914 in 1997 to 25,350 in 2007 Michelle Atkin is 40 and her youngest of six children is Jayna, now three.

Michelle of Newton Street, Darwen, said: “There are lots of benefits to being an older mum. When you are older, you are more relaxed about the whole thing generally than when you are in your twen- ties. You have more money so can offer them a more stable upbringing.

“I think it is more socially accepted to be an older mum now.”

Michelle, co-ordinator of Blackburn-based breastfeeding support group Little Angels, said she has noticed a rise in group numbers.

She said: “We have had more people getting in touch recently. I think the main reasons to the rise in babies is probably due to women having them later for reasons similar to mine, because they are on their second marriage.

“Plus you still have the mums of a younger age still having babies too, so there is bound to be an increase.”

In 2007 there were 690,013 births in the UK and the average fertility rate last year was 61.9 births per hundred thousand women aged 15-44.

In some areas of East Lancashire this figure was considerably higher — 78.7 per hundred thousand in Blackburn with Darwen, 70.6 per cent in Burnley and 71.1 per cent in Pendle.

The original baby boom occurred after the end of the Second World War, caused by the return of the soldiers from the war, the sheer joy of being alive and a desire to replace a ‘lost generation’.

There's not much doubt over what ended it in the 1960s either — the arrival of the contraceptive pill.

But this time the reasons for a rise in pregnancy rates are far more complicated. Various factors figure in the equation including teenage pregnancy, improvments to maternity benefits, the wider availability of fertility treatment such as IVF, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and possibly the multi-cultural natiure of modern society.

However, it is undeniable that there are more older mums around which has an added bonus.

In delaying childbirth, mother are more likely to have more disposable income to spend on their children.

This is borne out by Mothercare who report that sales of ‘premium products’ are on the up. The company has revelaed a 20 per cent rise in sales during the first quarter of 2008 at a time when many other retailers are facing the effects of the so-called ‘credit crunch’.