Babies in NZ are being born with eye infections passed down from mothers infected with chlamydia and gonorrhoea (file photo).

Newborns are paying the price for New Zealand's sky-high rates of sexually transmitted infections.

Babies are being born with eye infections passed down from mothers infected with chlamydia and gonorrhoea.

The country has the highest number of infections in the world and in the wider Midland's region the rates are up to 69 times higher than the United States and up to 21 times higher than the United Kingdom.

TOM LEE/STUFF Clinical director of the Hamilton Sexual Health Clinic, Dr Jane Morgan.

One expert says rates are at crisis level. But it's not the mothers we should be blaming, it's the health system.

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"It's so easy for us to point the finger at those young women but actually why is it so hard for these young women to get access to healthcare?" Dr Jane Morgan, clinical director of the Hamilton Sexual Health Clinic, said.

SUPPLIED Dr Samuel Newlands, an ophthalmology registrar in Christchurch, said the data revealed a vulnerable population.

"Why aren't those young poor women getting the same chunk of the pie? We should be asking if the services are meeting the needs of those young women and why the health system is failing them.

"Not 'what are those young women doing wrong?'."

Morgan has worked in NZ for nearly 22 years and says the statistics have not changed.

She said the issue has always been there but until now, there was no data.

The Neonatal conjunctivitis in the NZ Midland region report collected data from six DHBs: Waikato, Tairāwhiti, MidCentral, Lakes, Bay of Plenty and Whanganui.

Its findings, published in the NZ Medical Journal, revealed rates were higher in areas of deprivation.

Between 2012 and 2016, there were 77 cases of chlamydial neonatal conjunctivitis (CON) across 53,000 births in Midlands.

In Waikato, there were 34 cases from 21,000 births. And in Tairāwhiti - one of the most deprived areas in the country - there were seven cases from 3000 births.

The study showed only two cases of conjunctivitis contracted from a mother infected with gonorrhoea.

One of the study's authors, Samuel Newlands, said the data "showed up a vulnerable population".

"From the paper itself, we've shown we've got high rates in NZ," he said.

"It's a condition that seems to be affecting kids that live in areas of high deprivation and I think if you wanted to look at the study broadly, it's a piece in the NZ literature that shows the inequality of the health care in NZ."

Morgan said attitudes towards those with sexually transmitted infections (STI) need to change.

"Rheumatic fever is associated with poorer areas and pneumonia is associated with poorer areas. But as soon as we start using the word STI - oh, that's personal behaviour.

"Have you tried to buy a condom at a supermarket recently? They're expensive. We seem to lose that kind of framing as soon as we start talking about sex but it's exactly the same issue about the social determinants of health - not the personal behaviour."

She said part of the solution to lower the STI rate is education. Countries such as the UK - that have lower rates of STIs than NZ - have good sex education programmes.

Newlands said the study highlighted the importance of antenatal STI screening.

He said while the tests are done, they're only done for those who are high-risk. Furthermore, there is no set definition for high-risk women.

NZ College of Midwives Midwifery Advisor, Lesley Dixon, said the only routine screens offered to pregnant women were HIV and syphilis. She did not provide a definition for what high-risk was, in terms of testing for chlamydia or gonorrhoea.

"The College of Midwives looks forward to having the opportunity to review this research more fully and identify whether there are ways to improve the service midwives currently provide to women," Dixon said.

"Midwives are one of the few health professionals that provide health care in the woman's home meaning that we are able to access some of the harder to reach populations."