Australia’s mothers and babies 2007

From Embryology

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 Laws P & Sullivan EA 2009. Australia’s mothers and babies 2007. Perinatal statistics series no. 23. Cat. no. PER 48. Sydney: AIHW National Perinatal Statistics Unit and is provided for educational purposes only. The original full publication is available online from AIHW Perinatal statistics series no. 23.

Links: AIHW Perinatal statistics series no. 23 | AIHW National Perinatal Statistics Unit | Australian Statistics | Statistics- Australian Maternal Statistics

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

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