WOMEN living in the poorest areas of Scotland will have their first child 13 years earlier than new mothers from the richest parts of the country.
Fresh data analysed by the Scottish health department found that first-time mothers in the most deprived areas were, on average, aged just 19. By contrast, those in the wealthiest parts of Scotland were 32 years old.
Health experts said the trend
was cementing the wealth gap between rich and poor, as women in wealthy areas pursue their careers in their 20s before going on to have children, while those in more deprived parts stay at home to look after their offspring.
The new figures, circulated last week by the NHS's Women and Children's Health Service, were calculated by noting in which 'data zone' every one of 2007's first-time mothers lived.
There are more than 6,500 such Scottish zones, which divide the country into areas of 800 people or fewer and are ranked according to level of deprivation or wealth.
Belinda Phipps, chief executive of the National Childbirth Trust, said: "In the UK we are increasingly seeing two peaks, where there are babies born to the under-20s and then babies born to the over-30s".
Of the Scottish figures, she said: "This is a trend which we know about, but these figures show a really big gap now developing between rich and poor.
"We know what is happening here. If you see yourself as having a career and an education and you see that as a positive thing, then you are more likely to have your babies later. If you haven't entered education and you don't value a career then you will have your baby sooner rather than later.
"What this reinforces is the sense that the rich are getting richer and the poor getting poorer. The fact is that the earlier you have your children, the more it affects your lifetime chances.
"It takes a substantial part of your income away from you and it simply adds further to the divide between rich and poor."
The figures show that girls of 16 from the poorest homes are 30 times more likely to have a baby than those from the wealthiest homes.
About 300 16-year-old girls from the most deprived 20% of society had a baby in 2006-07, compared with around 10 in the wealthiest 20%.
By contrast, the number of 32-year-old women in the wealthiest 20% having babies was about double that in the poorest 20%.
The data released by the NHS also proves that babies born to poorer women are far more likely to be underweight.
A low-birthweight baby in Scotland – defined as below 5.5lbs – is three times more likely to be born to a woman living in an area of high deprivation than to one living in a wealthy area.
The figures confirm the growing body of evidence showing a massive gap between rich and poor.
In 2006, men could, on average, expect 67.9 years of healthy life and women 69 years. In the most deprived 15% of areas in Scotland, however, men could only expect 57.3 years of healthy life and women 59 years.
In the same year, adults aged 15-44 in the most deprived areas were almost five times more likely to die than those in the most wealthy areas.
Scottish ministers have now set up a Health Inequalities Task Force to try to reduce the growing gap.
It will prioritise the first years of a child's life, claiming that by intervening early the cycle can be broken.
Overall, the figures for births in Scotland reveal that the most common age for women to have a baby is between 30 and 34.
In 2007, this accounted for 28% of all births, compared with just 13% in 1976.
The full article contains 649 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
