According to Statistics Austria, a newborn girl weighed an average of 3,266 grams and was 50.3 cm long. Boys were a little heavier at 3,395 grams and taller at 51.0 cm.
98.1 percent of the children were born in a hospital; in 278 live births, the mother decided to give birth in a maternity hospital or a midwifery practice. In 1.9 percent of the cases, the mother stayed in the hospital or maternity home for less than 24 hours (“outpatient birth”). 1,180 babies were born at home – 33 were in a particularly hurry and were born on the way to hospital.
62.4 percent of newborns were born spontaneously in 2020, and 7.4 percent had a suction cup inserted. Newborns were only very rarely born with the help of forceps (2020: 33). The caesarean section rate has thus more than doubled since 1995 (12.4 percent). The differences ranged from 25.9 percent in Vorarlberg, 26.2 in Upper Austria and 26.9 in Salzburg to 29.2 percent in Lower Austria and 30.4 percent in Vienna to 33.3 in Krnten, 34.1 in Tyrol, 34 , 2 in Burgenland and 34.9 percent in Styria.
The average age of the mother at the time of birth in 2020 was 31.3 years, 4.2 years more than 30 years ago. During the same period, the average age of women who became mothers for the first time increased from 25.0 years to 30.0 years.
The age of birth of women with a caesarean section was on average slightly higher than that of women who gave birth spontaneously (32.1 versus 30.9 years). Pregnant women 35 years of age or older were 1.6 times more likely to have a caesarean section than those under 25 years of age (caesarean section rate 37.4 versus 23.6 percent).
According to Statistics Austria, a key indicator of the medical necessity of a caesarean delivery is the position of the child: In cases of irregular skull position, around half of the cases (53.0 percent), and in transverse position or breech position, even in the vast majority of cases (94.3 percent) or 98.6 percent) a caesarean section. But a quarter of babies were born this way even with their skulls in a proper position.
The proportion of babies with a low birth weight decreased by 0.6 percent compared to the previous year; thus 5.8 percent weighed less than 2,500 grams, 1.4 percent of the boys and 0.5 percent of the girls had a high birth weight of 4,500 grams and more.
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