Top End community enjoying baby boom

A remote community in the eastern Top End is in the midst of a baby boom.

Gove District Hospital is experiencing its busiest year in 18 years, with 50 babies born already this year.

This time last year, the hospital had only delivered 31.

"Sometimes it's very stressful," says obstetrician Tim Linton.

"We have women coming into labour sequentially or together, and so we only have two labour rooms and sometimes we have three or four labouring women." 

He says it's essential the remote maternity ward receives new equipment.

"If we had a better way of resuscitating babies, that'd be good, so things like oxygen saturations, we haven't got good equipment for at the moment, so when a babies born we like to know if their lungs are working well and if their oxygen levels are good."

Nurses aren’t exactly sure what prompted the boost in births, but say they are seeing more expectant mothers from Groote Eylandt delivering in Gove as opposed to Darwin.

Some have other suspicions, blaming the baby bonanza on cyclones during last year's wet season.