Notes on the data: Aboriginal mothers and babies

Aboriginal women who gave birth and did not have an antenatal visit in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, 2019 to 2021

Policy context: Antenatal care is associated with positive child and maternal health outcomes, with regular antenatal care visits in the first trimester (before 14 weeks’ gestational age), leading to fewer interventions in late pregnancy and positive outcomes for child health [1]. The Australian Antenatal Guidelines recommend that the first antenatal visit occur within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy and that first-time mothers with an uncomplicated pregnancy attend 10 visits [2]. Although almost all mothers (99.9%) who gave birth in 2015 had at least one antenatal visit, fewer than half (47%) of mothers did so in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy and 10% did not start antenatal care until after 20 weeks’ gestation [1].

In 2018, the age-standardised proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women attending antenatal care in the first trimester was 61%, a substantial increase from 2010, when it was 41% [3]. A lower proportion (65%) of Indigenous mothers had received antenatal care in the first trimester, compared with 73% of non-Indigenous mothers [3].

References

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2018. Australia’s health 2018. Australia’s health series no. 16, 4.12 Antenatal risk factors.
AHMAC 2012. Quoted in AIHW, Australia’s health 2018, 4.12 Antenatal risk factors.
AIHW. Tracking progress against the Implementation Plan goals for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2013–2023. Available from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/indigenous-health-welfare/tracking-progress-against-ipg-2013-2023/contents/maternal-health-and-parenting-domain/goal-1-antenatal-care-first-trimester; last accessed 23 December 2020

Notes: Data published prior to 2015 to 2017 were collected from each State and Territory health agency and are likely to have excluded people who live in one State/Territory and used a service in another. This data release uses data, provided to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare by each State and Territory, in which residents of another jurisdiction were generally coded to their correct usual address. This change will affect the time series published for quintiles and Remoteness Areas.

As the data are aggregated over three years, they may include women who gave birth more than once during the time period.

Data for many remote areas, particularly in Western Australia and Northern Territory, should be treated with caution, as the Australian Bureau of Statistics rate the quality of the population correspondence from SA2 to LGA in some areas as ‘Poor’.

Data quality

As is the case in most statistical collections in Australia, Indigenous status is under-reported in the midwives data collections from which these data are compiled. However, the level of completeness of coverage (the extent to which the identification of Indigenous Australians occurs in data collections) in these collections is generally higher than in other administrative data collections, such as those for deaths or hospital inpatients. It should also be noted that coverage is likely to vary between geographical areas.

Geography: Data available by Indigenous Area, Primary Health Network, Quintile of socioeconomic outcomes (based on IRSEO) and Remoteness Area

Numerator: The number of Aboriginal women who gave birth and who did not attend their first antenatal visit before 10 weeks gestation (data over 3 years)

Denominator: Total Aboriginal women who gave birth in the time period (data over 3 years), whether resulting in a live or stillbirth, if the birthweight is at least 400 grams or the gestational age is 20 weeks or more. Includes women with not stated or missing number of antenatal visits and 'Unknown number of visits'.

Detail of analysis: Per cent

Source: Compiled by PHIDU based on data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, on behalf of the States and Territories.