Australia’s mothers and babies 2007

Embryology - 23 Apr 2024        Expand to Translate
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Introduction

This data summarised below is provided to help you as a clinician or researcher understand the current trends in reproductive medicine within Australia.

The information is based upon data from the publication "Australia's mothers and babies 2007" and is provided for educational purposes only. The original full publication is available online from AIHW Perinatal statistics series no. 23.

Mothers

Australian Births by Year

• 289,496 women gave birth resulting in a total of 294,205 births
  • increase of 4.3% from 2006, and 14.4% increase since 2004
• 2,177 were fetal deaths
• 29.9 years was the maternal mean age in 2007
  • compared with 28.9 years in 1998
• 41.6% of mothers had their first baby and 33.5% had their second baby
• 10,883 women were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander (3.8% of all women who gave birth)
  • 39.5% of all mothers in the Northern Territory
  • 25.2 years was the average age of women who gave birth

Assisted reproduction technology

• 3.1% women received ART treatment
  • ranging from 1.4% in the Australian Capital Territory to 3.7% in Tasmania
• 34.1 years was the average age of women who received ART
• 62.7% of mothers who received ART treatment were having their first baby and 37.3% had given birth previously

Smoking during pregnancy

• 16.6% of women smoked during pregnancy
  • this proportion is little changed over the previous five years

Preterm birth

• 7.4% of all mothers (less than 37 completed weeks of gestation)
  • 38.8 weeks is the average duration of pregnancy

Multiple pregnancy

• 4,634 multiple pregnancies (1.6% of all mothers) increasing due to the increased use of ART
  • 4,558 twin pregnancies
  • 76 triplet pregnancies
  • no quadruplet pregnancies

Presentation at birth

• 94.6% cephalic (any part vertex, face, or brow of the fetal head)
• 4.0% breech (buttocks or feet)

Method of birth

Australian birth delivery method

• 57.9% vaginal births
• 11.2% had an instrumental vaginal delivery (forceps or vacuum extraction)
• 30.9% caesarean section births
  • 21.1% in 1998, 30.8% in 2006, rate recently stable
  • 83.3% of these were repeat caesarean sections

Pre-existing and pregnancy-related medical conditions

• epilepsy, diabetes mellitus and hypertension, antepartum haemorrhage, gestational diabetes, cord prolapse and retained placenta, pregnancy-induced hypertension, fetal distress in labour and post-partum haemorrhage rates

Postnatal length of stay

• 2.0 days non-instrumental vaginal birth
• 3.0 days vacuum extraction delivery
• 4.0 days caesarean section or forceps delivery

Babies

• 292,027 live births and 2,177 fetal deaths
  • stillbirth rate of 7.4 per 1,000 births
• most births occurred in March, August and October
• 105.6 sex ratio (number of male per 100 female liveborn babies)

Gestational age

• 90.9% term (37–41 weeks gestation)
• 8.1% were preterm
• 33.2 weeks was the mean gestational age for all preterm births
  • Preterm births were classified groups of 20–27 weeks, 28–31 weeks and 32–36 weeks

Birthweight

• 92.1% of liveborn babies had a birthweight in the range 2,500–4,499 grams
  • average birthweight was 3,374 grams
• 17,976 (6.2%) low birthweight (weighing less than 2,500 grams)
• 2,956 (1.0%) very low birthweight (weighing less than 1,500 grams)
• 1,288 (0.4%) extremely low birthweight (weighing less than 1,000 grams)

Apgar scores

• 1.4% of liveborn babies had a low Apgar score (between 0 and 6) at 5 minutes (More? Apgar test)

Special care nurseries or neonatal intensive care units

• 14.5% of liveborn babies were admitted to an SCN or NICU

Perinatal mortality

• 2,177 fetal deaths (7.4 per 1,000 births)
  • fetal deaths are if the birthweight is at least 400 grams or the gestational age is 20 weeks or more
• 846 neonatal deaths (2.9 per 1,000 live births)
  • neonatal deaths are those occurring in live births up to 28 completed days after birth

• 3,024 perinatal deaths
  • perinatal death includes birthweight of at least 400 grams or, where birthweight is unknown, a gestational age of at least 20 weeks
• 23.5% congenital abnormalities (anomalies)
• 13.8% maternal conditions
• 12.6% unexplained antepartum death