Bendigo’s baby boom

STAFF at Bendigo Health’s midwifery unit have been surprised by the number of babies delivered at the maternity ward last year.

According to the heath service, just over 1900 babies were born, a 15 per cent increase from 2020.

“It’s an amazing effort by the team in what has been a challenging year,” said, Jenny Pitson midwifery unit manager.

Ms Pitson said numbers of babies being born were up in Loddon Mallee region despite a decrease across the state.

“There could be a range of factors driving our birthing rate, from COVID to us birthing higher-risk pregnancies from the Loddon Mallee region,” she said.

Between January and November last year 68,559 births were registered across the state, a decrease of over 1000 over the same period in 2020.

At Bendigo Health, the number of babies being born has been rising steadily since 2018, with the biggest previous jump of 97 babies in 2019. This year, the number of babies born rose by 259.

Bendigo Health board chair Bob Cameron said the rise births is a positive for the region.

“Families in the region are choosing to have children, which means more central Victorians,” he said. “That’s a great thing.”