新西兰英语 03 Birth Statistics

　　Mothers and babies have been in the news this last week. First, Statistics¹ New Zealand announced a slight increase in the birth rate and secondly² the Capital and Coast District Health Board (which has hospitals in the Wellington area) is worried about a shortage³ of midwives to deliver babies.
The number of births in New Zealand for the year to September 2007 was 62,360 which is the highest number since 1972. This brings the birth rate to just over 2.1 births for every woman in New Zealand. For the last 20 years, the birth rate has been about the same at about 2 babies for every woman. Compare this with 20 years after the Second World War when the birth rate was 3.8. This reached a peak of 4.3 in 1961.
Other countries with low birth rates have also had recent increases. Australia for instance was up to 1.8 last year from 1.7 in 2001.
The average age of women having their first baby is 28. The median age (half younger and half older) for women having babies is 30.
Nearly a quarter of the babies were from mixed ethnic⁴ parents especially Maori and Pacific Island babies. Maori women had more babies than women from other ethnic groups – 2.87.
Life expectancy⁵ for a new-born girl is 81.9 years and for a boy, 77.9 years.
The other item of news concerning babies is about the shortage of midwives in the Wellington area. Most women choose to have a midwife to look after them while they are pregnant⁶, when they deliver their baby and to help them in the first few weeks with their new born baby. This has changed in the last 20 years when obstetricians (specialist doctors) and GPs used to deliver most babies. Many GPs have given up this work. Babies often come in the middle of the night which makes it difficult for GPs to do their usual work. Obstetricians are still necessary for difficult births; older mothers mean more difficult births. However, midwives deliver most babies but not so many women are choosing to be midwives these days. This is causing a big problem in hospitals.
The Capital and Coast District Health Board at first planned to give $100 grocery vouchers⁷ to women who left hospital 6 hours after a normal birth in December and January but midwives were angry at this idea. They said it would put mothers and babies at risk. The Hospital Board dropped the plan.

1 statistics   

n.统计，统计数字，统计学

参考例句：

• We have statistics for the last year.我们有去年的统计资料。
• Statistics is taught in many colleges.许多大学都教授统计学。

2 secondly   

adv.第二，其次

参考例句：

• Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
• Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。

3 shortage   

n.缺少，缺乏，不足

参考例句：

• The city is suffering a desperate shortage of water.这个城市严重缺水。
• The heart of the problem is a shortage of funds.问题的关键是缺乏经费。

4 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

5 expectancy   

n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额

参考例句：

• Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
• The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。

6 pregnant   

adj.怀孕的，怀胎的

参考例句：

• She is a pregnant woman.她是一名孕妇。
• She is pregnant with her first child.她怀了第一胎。

7 vouchers   

n.凭证( voucher的名词复数 )；证人；证件；收据

参考例句：

• These vouchers are redeemable against any future purchase. 这些优惠券将来购物均可使用。
• This time we were given free vouchers to spend the night in a nearby hotel. 这一次我们得到了在附近一家旅馆入住的免费券。 来自英语晨读30分（高二）