Now it is falling. NZ Statistics recently released the 2011 (year ended December) birth statistics.
The 2011 birthrate per 1,000 15-19 year-olds has fallen three whole points from 2010. It was 28.8 (per 1,000 females aged 15-19) in 2010 and has dropped to 25.8 in 2011 - in 2008 it had climbed to 32.8
This is encouraging but I am not sure what is driving it. There was a similar drop from the late 1990s to the early 2000s (and similar numbers).
In 2011 there were rate-drops in every age group as the number of births fell from 63,897 to 61,403.
Changes as big as this do represent some behavioural/thinking change I think. The recession? But during the last recession of the early nineties births peaked. This recession they are falling, with a slight lag:
I do wonder though whether (the prospect of) tougher welfare conditions is having some effect. Last time National was in government and they talked tough on the DPB, introduced work-testing (in 1998 from memory) there was similar decline in the teenage birthrate.