The Vila Central Hospital in Vanuatu has recorded its highest ever number of births in one month.
In September, the doctors and midwives delivered 188 babies compared to the normal figures of between 80 and a hundred.
But the Vanuatu Daily Post says the number of births outside the hospital is also increasing.
The decline in the economy and bus and hospital charges may be putting mothers off going to the obstetric unit until they are sure they are in labour.
The report on births in the capital was put together by Dr Robert Grice and Dr Thomas Sala Vurobaravu.
Vanuatu has one of the fastest growing populations in the world, with current estimates put the growth rate at two point eight per cent per annum.
