Ethnicity & Health, 2015, 20(5): 511-522

In this paper, the authors were interested in exploring the influence of ethnicity on immediate and long-term (five years post-partum) foetal, maternal and injury-related outcomes. By limiting their investigation to women aged 25 years or under, they attempted to account for the different age structure between Māori and non-Māori mothers. Overall, the Māori population is younger than the non-Māori population of New Zealand, and Māori women begin having children at a younger age [fertility rates are highest in Māori women between age 20 and 29 at 150 births per 1000 women, while for non-Māori women, the fertility rates are highest at age 30–34 years at 125 births per 1000 women. The methods used in this investigation are based on a retrospective, population-based study analysing maternal discharge records linked to birth/death certificates from 1991 to 1999, (from the paper)