Baby boom in Almeria Province

SPAIN’S birth rate climbed for the first time in five years.
The increase is a minimal 0.1 per cent, but the slight increase announced by the national statistics’ office INE is a classic sign of economic recovery.
The rise was even more marked in Almeria where the birth rate rose by 1.2 per cent in 2014. The total of 7,864 births registered in state and private hospitals and clinics in 2014 were 93 up on 2013 and accounted for 15 per cent of all Spanish births.
At Hospital de Poniente in El Ejido births actually diminished last year, especially compared with the days when the arrival of young immigrants coincided with a sharply increased birth rate.
Torrecardenas hospital in Almeria City has had a daily average of 10 births for some years although midwives, gynaecologists and paediatricians noted a slight fall in births in 2013 and 2014, despite the INE figures.
The overall rise is due to an increased number of births in private clinics, they explained.
This is borne out by figures from the principal hospital staff trade unions, which show that more people are taking out private health insurance in Almeria than any other province in Andalucia.