10 girls aged 16 or under give birth every month

Older mums may be the trend but Irish maternity wards welcomed at least one 15-year-old mother-of-two last year.

Figures from the Central Statistics Office tracking births, marriages and deaths up to the middle of 2011 show five schoolgirls aged 15 or under gave birth between April and June and one of them already had a child.

In total, 63 girls aged 16 or younger — below the legal age of consent — had babies in the first six months of last year, fewer than the previous year but still a rate of five every fortnight.