A study by the Health and Social Care Information Centre has shown an increase in the number of mothers over 40 giving birth but the number of teenage mothers falling.

In the last five years there has been a 6 per cent rise in hospital births and approximately a quarter of those delivered by caesarean section.  In 2011-12 over 33,500 babies were born to women aged between 13 and 19, a 22 per cent fall in five years.  Mothers over the age of 40 in London are giving birth at double the rate of teenagers account for one in 20 of all births in the Capital. Numbers for instrumental assisted birth and caesarean delivery have also increased.

Dr Dan Poulter, health minister, said: “It is very encouraging to see teenage pregnancy rates continuing to decline.  They are now at their lowest level for over 40 years.  It is usually safer and more desirable for a women to have a natural birth, but whether to have a caesarean or not is a decision for a woman to make as an individual in consultation with the health professionals providing her care”.