Tauranga Hospital has embarked on a recruitment drive to lure midwives amid a shortage caused in part by the biggest baby boom in more than 40 years.
Figures from Statistics New Zealand show the number of births in the Western Bay of Plenty district and Tauranga city have grown significantly since 2000.
The Western Bay jumped from 518 births in 2000 to 546 in 2007, and Tauranga rose from 1327 births in 2000 to 1635 births in 2007.
Carol Wollaston, communications manager for the Bay of Plenty District Health Board, said birth rates at Tauranga Hospital had risen in the past three years, with 1845 births in 2005, 1907 in 2006, and 2066 in 2007.
"There were 1058 births in the first half of 2008 and predictions are around 2200 in Tauranga for the year."
A global midwife shortage was having an impact on how Tauranga coped, she said.
"Our vacancy rate for hospital midwives is 16 per cent. Currently there are 69 independent midwives providing primary care at Bay of Plenty DHB facilities, in addition to 25 hospital midwives spread across Tauranga and Whakatane hospitals. They all provide 24-hour care."
Ms Wollaston said initiatives to recruit and retain midwives included a special programme supporting new graduates and supporting registered nurses who would like to undertake midwifery training.
Midwives were also being recruited from overseas.
She believed the increase was due to the region's population growth and increased number of younger people choosing to live here.
The national total has been creeping up for the past five years, along with the birth rate, which reached 2.1 per woman in the March year.
The two age groups showing the biggest surge in the past five years were 15-19-year-olds and 35-39-year-olds, both up by 23 per cent.
The 30- to 34-year-old bracket still has the highest rate, with 125.3 births per thousand women.
Pam Wards, area manager for Lakes and Bay of Plenty Plunket, said the number of babies registered with Plunket had increased by 11 per cent (or 130 babies) in the 2007 financial year.
In Bay of Plenty, it had jumped by 13 per cent or 300 babies.
The organisation sees 90 per cent of all babies born and Ms Ward said Plunket was increasingly having to prioritise new babies, and call on karatane and kiawhina [Plunket helpers] to assist registered Plunket nurses.
Plunket was also looking to recruit more staff under a funding boost from the Ministry of Health, allocated for this financial year.
The baby surge has compounded the spike in early childhood enrolments triggered by last year's introduction of 20 hours a week free childcare for 3 and 4-year-olds.
Penny Tkaczuk, owner of the Tauranga franchise of PORSE In-Home Childcare Network, said enrolments were also likely to be impacted by New Zealand's deflated economy as mothers returned to work sooner.
The baby surge has led the Ministry of Education to revise upwards its school roll projections by 70,000 during the next 15 years.
The dominant fertility trend for the past 25 years has been downwards in all Western countries.
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