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Immigrant mothers are less likely to give birth to babies with cerebral palsy, according to a new Canadian study.

Researchers found that children whose mothers immigrated to Ontario from other countries were significantly less likely to suffer cerebral palsy compared to those with Canadian-born mothers.

The findings revealed that the rates of cerebral palsy were especially low in children of mothers from the Caribbean and East Asian.

"Predicting who is at highest risk of having a child with CP remains an international priority," lead author Dr. Joel Ray said in a news release.

The latest study is important because cerebral palsy is the most common motor disability in childhood, and statistics show that that rates of the condition show no evidence of declining.

The latest study involved data from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences on all single births in Ontario from 2002 to 2008. Researchers noted that all children were monitored up to age four.

Study results revealed that there was 1,346 cases of cerebral palsy among 744,058 live single births.

There were 1,45 cases of cerebral palsy for every 1,000 birth among immigrant mothers. However, there were 1.92 cerebral palsy cases per 1,000 births in non-immigrant mothers.

Researchers said the study suggests that immigrant women were 23 percent less likely to give birth to kids with cerebral palsy.

The findings were published July 14 in the online journal PLoS One.