Australia's mothers and babies 1993

Highlights

• In 1993, 260,578 babies born to 256,956 mothers were notified to perinatal data collections in the States and Territories, 0.8% fewer than in 1992. More mothers had their babies in birth centres than in previous years and home births declined slightly in 1993.
• The average age of all mothers in 1993 was 28.2 years, and 26.2 years for those having their first baby, continuing the upward trend in recent years. There were 13,622 teenage mothers (5.3% of all mothers), of whom 4,171 were aged 17 years or younger.
• There were 7,255 indigenous mothers (2.8% of all mothers), of whom 2,234 gave birth in Queensland, 1,456 in New South Wales, 1,442 in Western Australia, 1,221 in the Northern Territory, and smaller numbers in the other States and the Australian Capital Territory. Their average age was 23.9 years.
• The proportion of mothers who were born in other countries increased slightly from 22.4% in 1991 to 22.7% in 1992 and 23.1% in 1993. In 1993, 6.9% of all mothers had been born in Asia, including increasing numbers from Vietnam (4,117), the Philippines (2,729), China (2,278), Malaysia (1,383), India (1,256), and Hong Kong (1,088).
• Multiple pregnancies accounted for 1.4% of all confinements and included 3,420 twin pregnancies, 99 triplet pregnancies, and 1 quintuplet pregnancy.
• In 1993, almost 1 in 5 (19.0%) deliveries was by caesarean section, continuing the rising trend from 18.0% in 1991 and 18.3% in 1992. South Australia (22.5%) had the highest caesarean rate in 1993 and Tasmania (16.6%) the lowest. Caesarean rates were higher among older mothers, those having their first baby, and those in private accommodation in hospital. Mothers aged 35-39 years in private accommodation for their first baby had a caesarean rate of 40.4%.
• More mothers had relatively short postnatal stays in hospital in 1993 than in previous years. The proportion who stayed less than 4 days increased from 20.2% in 1991 to 24.1% in 1992 and 29.0% in 1993.
• Low birthweight (less than 2,500g) occurred in 16,374 (6.3%) infants in 1993. The mean birthweight of infants of indigenous mothers was 3,154g, 204g less than for all births; 11.8% of indigenous infants had a low birthweight, almost twice the national proportion.
• Fetal, neonatal and perinatal death rates continued their downward trend of the last two decades, declining to 4.8, 3.4 and 8.2 per 1,000 births, respectively, in 1993, the lowest rates yet achieved. Early neonatal deaths and fetal deaths during labour have shown the greatest declines. The perinatal death rate of twins was 4.1 times higher, and of other multiple births 8.7 times higher, than the death rate of singleton babies.
• In 1993, the survival up to 28 days of low birthweight infants varied from 68.6% for infants of 500-999g to 93.2% for those weighing 1000-1499g, and 97.6% for infants of 1500-1999g.