"Wanted to Have a Baby... 40,000 This Year Alone, Farewell to the Child in the Womb"

Absolute numbers have decreased, but the ratio of live births and stillbirths has increased
First-born mothers' age highest among OECD countries
"Increase in advanced maternal age is one of the causes"

Photo unrelated to the article. [Source=Pixabay]

It was revealed that nearly 40,000 babies were not born due to miscarriage and stillbirth in the first half of this year. The miscarriage and stillbirth rate reached 25.43%, the highest in the past 10 years.

According to data submitted by the National Health Insurance Service to Baek Jong-heon, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee from the People Power Party, 39,295 miscarriages and 121 stillbirths were recorded in the first half of this year. During the same period, there were 115,559 live births, meaning that 39,416 babies, or 34.1% of all pregnancies, did not see the light of day. Medically, miscarriage refers to the death of a fetus before 20 weeks of pregnancy, resulting in its expulsion from the uterus. Stillbirth refers to the delivery of a baby who died after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Induced abortions are excluded from this count.

In modern society, the number of pregnancies has sharply declined, leading to a decrease in miscarriages and stillbirths. The number of miscarriages and stillbirths, which was 110,280 in 2013, dropped below 100,000 to 98,554 in 2017, and further decreased to 77,037 last year. Although the absolute numbers have decreased, the miscarriage and stillbirth rate (miscarriages and stillbirths divided by the sum of miscarriages, stillbirths, and live births) rose from 20.65% in 2013 to 21.87% in 2017, and remained steadily increasing at around 24% from 2020 to 2022. As of the first half of this year, it reached 25.43%, the highest since 2013.

Medical experts cite delayed marriage and an increase in advanced maternal age as one of the causes of this phenomenon. According to Statistics Korea, the average age of mothers giving birth to their first child was 33.0 years last year, up 2.3 years from 30.7 years in 2013. This is the highest among OECD member countries. The proportion of mothers aged 35 and older, classified as high-risk, was 36.3% last year, nearly 1.5 times higher than 20.2% in 2013.