THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Christian women in the state prefer to take on motherhood much later than their Muslim and Hindu counterparts, as per the data available with the Vital Statistics Division of the State Government.With a cent per cent registration of births, the figures at the Statistics Department show that a large section of Christian women tends to have children between the ages of 25-29 while in the case of Muslims it is between 20 and 24. Hindu women show an almost equal preference for both the age groups with a slight edge for the 25-29 ages. Of all the teen mothers (aged between 15 and 19) in the state, the highest percentage (11.86 per cent) belongs to the Muslim community, indicating that minor marriages still occur within that community. The corresponding figures for Hindu women are 3.12 per cent and Christian women are a mere 1.31 per cent. If the Muslim women decide to turn mothers quite young, topping both the 15-19 and 20-24 age groupings, Christian women seem to wait and watch and get ready for motherhood in their late twenties. Christian women in the older age groups such as early thirties, late thirties and even forties, also appear to have no hesitation to have a baby.The compiled data on all the births in the state also throws up some curious facts such as the seasonal pattern of births in the state. “On analysing the month-wise registration details, it is seen that of the twelve months in a year, the highest number of live births were registered during October,” said the vital statistics report. The Librans are closely followed by the Leos, the Geminis and the Sagittarians. Right at the bottom of the list is the month of February, making Aquarians a minority in the state.Similarly, the compiled data shows that babies with low birth weight are becoming a thing of the past in Kerala. Out of 5.36 lakh of live births in 2008, only 13 percent of the babies weighed less than 2.5 kg. It has been found that longer the duration of pregnancy, the bonnier the babies are.The year 2008 saw 1,994 stillbirths in the state. However, the number of male stillbirths was much more than female stillbirths. The incidence of stillbirths was more in the case of mothers in their late twenties followed by the early twenties age-group. Interestingly, the incidence of stillbirth for mothers in their forties is less than one per cent, which maybe due to the better medical attention given to them.Even in this era of pre-meditated childbirths, almost 60 per cent of all institutional deliveries were normal deliveries, with the rest being caesarean sections and a very small per cent with the use of either forceps or vacuum. And of the total caesarean cases, 67.27 per cent were reported from private sector.The latest maternal mortality rate for the state has been computed as 21 per one lakh live births. Complications in pregnancy and heart attacks seem to be the major causes of maternal deaths in all age groups.
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