Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are born healthy and strong.

By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander babies with a health birthweight to 91 per cent

Use of antenatal care by pregnant women:

• proportion with five or more antenatal visits
• proportion with at least one antenatal care visit in the first trimester

There are two measures for this indicator.

Measure 1 is the proportion of women with five or more antenatal visits defined as:

Numerator — number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who gave birth at 32 weeks or more gestation and who attended five or more antenatal visits

Denominator — number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who gave birth at 32 weeks or more gestation

and is presented as a percentage.

Measure 2 is the proportion of women with at least one antenatal care visit in the first trimester defined as:

Numerator — number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who gave birth and who attended at least one antenatal visit in the first trimester

Denominator — number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who gave birth

and is presented as a percentage.

National Agreement on Closing the Gap July 2020

8 March 2023

Driver

For both measures, a high or increasing proportion is desirable.

Name: National Perinatal Data Collection (NPDC)

Frequency: Annual

Documentation (links): https://www.aihw.gov.au/about-our-data/our-data-collections/national-perinatal-data-collection

Provider name: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Provider area: Perinatal

2017

2020

Both measures:

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status of mother

Numerator divided by Denominator multiplied by 100

Counting rules

Both measures

Data relate to women who gave birth, whether resulting in a live or still birth, if the birthweight is at least 400 grams or the gestational age is 20 weeks or more, except in Vic and WA, where included if gestational age is 20 weeks or more or, if gestation is unknown, the birthweight is at least 400 grams.

Indigenous status is that of the mother.

Data are by state and territory of the usual residence of the mother.

Data excludes Australian non-residents, residents of external territories and records where state/territory of residence was not stated.

Antenatal visits relate to care provided by skilled birth attendants for reasons related to pregnancy.

For measure 2, first trimester is up to and including 13 completed weeks.

Excludes (numerator and denominator) (Both measures)

• Women whose Indigenous status was ‘Not stated’.

Excludes (numerator and denominator) (Measure 1)

• Women with unknown gestation.
• Women whose number of antenatal visits was ‘Not stated’.

Includes (numerator and denominator) (Measure 1)

• Women who gave birth at 32 weeks or more gestation to a live birth or stillbirth.

Excludes (denominator) (Measure 2)

• Women whose duration of pregnancy at first antenatal visit was ‘Not stated’.

Supporting calculations

• Variability bands (provided for proportions). See the How to interpret data for further information: https://www.pc.gov.au/closing-the-gap-data/how-to/interpret-data.
• Age standardised proportions (for comparisons by Indigenous status).
• Age-standardised proportions use the 2001 Australian female Estimated Resident Population (ERP) aged 15–44 as the standard population. Five-year age groups are used for age-standardisation, with the exception of the upper age group of 35–44 years. The lowest age group was 15–19 years. Data are not comparable with data based on different age groups. Age-standardised proportions have not been calculated if any age-stratified group has fewer than 30 individuals. These data are reported as np.

Data for these measures align with similar measures in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework.

Both measures

In the NPDC, Indigenous status is a measure of whether a person identifies as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin. All jurisdictions have a data item to record Indigenous status of the mother and Indigenous status of the baby on their perinatal form, although there are some differences among the jurisdictions. See https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/mothers-babies/australias-mothers-babies/contents/technical-notes/data-quality-and-availability

Data recorded about antenatal visits is based on visits recorded in the woman’s clinical record and may not include all antenatal visits outside the hospital setting, such as with a general practitioner or private obstetrician.

The AIHW does not provide data for proportions based on denominators of less than 100 for reliability reasons. Proportions based on numerators of less than five are also not provided, with the exception of not stated categories. However, relevant data are included in the calculation for Australian totals.

For the ACT, in many cases early antenatal care provided by the woman’s general practitioner (GP) is not reported.

Measure 2

For the ACT, first antenatal visit is often the first hospital antenatal clinic visit.

Additional disaggregations required for future reporting:

• Remoteness areas
• Socioeconomic status of the locality
• Disability status of mother