Australia's mothers and babies 1996

Australia's Mothers and Babies 1996 provides information on births in Australia from perinatal data collections for each State and Territory. The report examines demographic and pregnancy factors of mothers and the characteristics and outcomes of their infants.

This report will be particularly useful to consumers of perinatal health care services, perinatal health service planners and those providing services or conducting research in reproductive and perinatal health.

Australia's Mothers and Babies 1996 was produced by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare National Perinatal Statistics Unit based at the University of New South Wales.

Highlights

• In 1996, 257,092 babies born to 253,413 mothers were notified to perinatal data collections in the States and Territories. More mothers had their babies in birth centres than in previous years and home births increased in 1996.
• The average age of all mothers in 1996 was 28.6 years, and 26.6 years for those having their first baby, continuing the upward trend in recent years. There were 13,373 teenage mothers (5.3% of all mothers), of whom 4,230 were aged 17 years or younger.
• Although some women are deferring childbearing, in 1996 only 1 in 13 mothers had their first baby at age 35 years or older. Nearly one in 8 mothers with private health insurance were in this group, compared with only 1 in 20 mothers who did not have private health insurance.
• There were 7,820 Indigenous mothers (3.1% of all mothers), of whom 2,606 gave birth in Queensland, 1,712 in New South Wales, 1,411 in Western Australia, 1,210 in the Northern Territory, with smaller numbers in the other States and the Australian Capital Territory. Their average age was 24.2 years and there was a high proportion of teenage mothers (22.1%).
• The proportion of mothers who were born in a country other than Australia was 23.0% in 1996. Mothers born in Asia increased from 5.1% of all mothers in 1991 to 7.6% in 1996, reflecting the increasing number of confinements of mothers born in countries such as Vietnam (4,576), China (3,269), and the Philippines (2,675).
• Multiple pregnancies accounted for 1.4% of all confinements and included 3,466 twin pregnancies, 97 triplet pregnancies, and 6 higher order pregnancies.
• In 1996, almost 1 in 5 (19.5%) births was by caesarean section. South Australia (23.1%) had the highest caesarean rate in 1996 and New South Wales (17.6%) the lowest. Caesarean rates were higher among older mothers, those having their first baby, and those with private health insurance. Mothers aged 35-39 years who were privately insured and having their first baby had a caesarean rate of 39.9%.
• More mothers had relatively short postnatal stays in hospital in 1996 than in previous years. The proportion who stayed less than 4 days increased from 20.2% in 1991 to 40.3% in 1996. Mothers without private health insurance had shorter postnatal stays than those with private health insurance.
• Low birthweight (less than 2,500 g) occurred in 16,525 (6.4%) infants in 1996. The mean birthweight of infants of Indigenous mothers was 3,140 g, 220 g less than the mean for all births; 12.6% of Indigenous infants had a low birthweight, almost twice the national proportion.
• Fetal, neonatal and perinatal death rates were 5.5, 3.0 and 8.5 per 1,000 births, respectively, in 1996, slightly higher for fetal and perinatal death rates and slightly lower for neonatal death rates when compared to the previous three years. Rates remain low, having steadily declined for the past two decades. The perinatal death rate of twins was 3.7 times higher, and of other multiple births 8.6 times higher, than the death rate of singleton babies.
• The main causes of perinatal deaths based on the Whitfield classification were spontaneous preterm birth, unexplained intrauterine fetal death, and fetal abnormality. These three groups of causes accounted for at least half of all perinatal deaths in 1996 in the States where data was available (Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania).