Quick facts

New Zealand women have an average of two births each.

The median age of women giving birth is 30 years (which means half of all women who give birth are aged over 30).

Birth rates for New Zealand women aged over 30 have been increasing over the last 10 years.

About 15 in 100 couples in New Zealand have difficulty conceiving a child. About 5 in 100 have in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment. About 450 IVF babies are born in New Zealand each year.

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Families and households

The median age of women giving birth is now 30 years, and the median age of women giving birth to their first child is 28 years.

In 2001 the average number of births per woman was almost two compared with just over three in 1971.

Women are more likely to have children outside of marriage than in the past. In 2001, more than 43 in 100 births were to women who were not legally married, compared with 14 in 100 in 1971.

Mothers with partners are more likely to be in paid work than sole mothers.

Mothers are living in increasingly diverse families and households. Increasing numbers of women are living in non-marital partnerships or shared households.

Eight in 10 sole parents are women. More than half of sole mothers are aged between 30 and 49.

Teenage sole mothers make up a very small proportion of all sole parents.

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Paid work

Mothers with dependent children are returning to paid work earlier than in the past, although the rates for mothers from different ethnic groups vary. More than 7 in 10 European mothers with dependent children are in the workforce, compared with slightly more than 6 in 10 Māori mothers and 6 in 10 Pacific mothers.

In the 10 years to 2001, the proportion of mothers with dependent children who were in paid work increased from 58 to 68 in every 100.

Mothers are far more likely than women without dependent children, or men, to work part time, in more than one job, or from home.

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Income

As the main caregivers of dependent children, mothers are likely to spend less time in paid work than other groups of people, so have lower incomes.

Mother’s tend to earn more as their children become older due to the mother’s extra years of paid work experience and increased ability to work full time. By the time a youngest child is 14, a mother could expect to earn a median annual income of $20,400.

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Unpaid work

Women do most of the unpaid work such as household cleaning, cooking, childcare, looking after family members, or working in voluntary or community organisations.

Mothers in paid work spend as much time playing with and reading to their children as do mothers not in paid work. They do this by reducing the time spent on other activities.

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Education

Women aged over 25 years and with dependent children make up a large proportion of all women studying at tertiary level.

Access to, and availability of high-quality, affordable childcare is important to enable mothers to participate higher education.

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Health

In 2004 just under 58,000 mothers gave birth. Antenatal care for pregnant mothers in New Zealand is provided by a Lead Maternity Carer (LMC). The LMC will be a widwife, a general practitioner or an obstetrician. Seventy percent of pregnant New Zealand women will use a midwife. All maternity care in New Zealand is free unless mothers use a private obstetrician. Only 5–8 percent of New Zealand women give birth at home; most babies are born in hospitals or specialist birthing centres.

Plunket provides well child services to more than 90 percent of new mothers and their babies and families.
About 14 in 100 mothers in New Zealand experience symptoms of minor depression immediately after having a child. Almost 8 in 100 experience depression that is more severe or longer lasting. Mothers most at risk are younger women, women without partners, Māori women, and women on low incomes and with fewer educational qualifications.

Exposure to poor housing conditions including coldness, dampness and mildew can have negative effects on mental and physical maternal health. 

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Housing

Women head 82 percent of sole parent households. They are less likely to live in owned dwellings than are couples with children.

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Violence against mothers

More than 13,800 women and more than 8,600 children sought help from Women’s Refuge in 2004.

Research shows that there is a substantial overlap between child abuse and partner abuse.  In homes where domestic violence occurs, children are at risk of being physically abused.

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