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Birth outcomes in NSW Australia

The New South Wales Mothers and Babies 2003 Report is full of fascinating details about the maternity services in this State. It is the most comprehensive report released in the country and offers 117 pages of packed tables and statistics that cover every aspect of the service, from pregnancy care to intrapartum, postnatal, neonatal intensive care and perinatal deaths. The outcomes for various sectors of the community are also broken down, by nationality, place of residence, age and parity. The report is so detailed, it would be possible to discover the likely outcome for a young Turkish woman, with a pre-existing health condition, married, living in a rural town, having her first baby as a public patient in a district hospital!

With so much to read, the Executive Summary at the beginning makes a useful snapshot. The figures here indicate that the demographics continue to change: teenage pregnancy rate have fallen again to a low of 4.0% of all mothers in 2003 and the number of women having their first baby over the age of 35 has risen once more to 19.3% of all births.

The normal vaginal birth rate continues to fall slowly and is now at 62.6% of all births. Women choosing private, obstetric care don’t do so well - only 52.4% have a vaginal birth, and 32.2% of them will have caesarean surgery. Women who chose the public health system have a much better chance of avoiding surgery, and only 20.9% of them will find themselves in theatre (still way too high).

One disappointing fact to emerge is that the number of women who are choosing a birth centre for their care fell slightly in 2003, to just 3.7%. The number of homebirths also fell to just 132, out of a total of 86,414 births. This will be partly a reflection of the lack of midwives due to the insurance crisis, but will also be due to the lack understanding about home birth in the wider community.

There are more fascinating figures to reveal and next time I will look at specific hospitals and their outcomes.

Posted by andrea at January 25, 2005 06:48 AM