More Australian mothers are staying in hospital for less time
after childbirth than in previous years, according to a report
released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
(AIHW).
Australia's Mothers and Babies 1998 shows the
proportion of mothers staying less than 2 days was more than 10%,
up from just over 3% seven years earlier, while those staying
between two and four days also increased, from 35% to 53%.
Conversely, mothers staying five or more days dropped from 62%
to 38% over the same period.
Head of the AIHW National Perinatal Statistics Unit at the
University of New South Wales, Dr Paul Lancaster, said factors
associated with shorter postnatal stays were younger maternal age,
previous births, Indigenous status, spontaneous (not induced)
delivery, maternity units of medium size, and public status in
hospital.
'When you look at the various factors, mothers admitted to
hospital as public patients were much more likely to have shorter
stays than those admitted as private patients', Dr Lancaster
said.
'Almost 78% of mothers with public status stayed for less than
five days while only 33% of mothers with private status did.'
'The differences in stay between public and private were
consistent across all ages, number of previous births, Indigenous
status, type of delivery and size of hospital.'
Australia's Mothers and Babies 1998 presents data
collected from the 255,522 births notified to State and Territory
perinatal data collections in that year. Other findings
include:
- More than 1 in 5 births (21.1%) were by caesarean section;
South Australia had the highest caesarean rate (23.9%) and the
Australian Capital Territory the lowest (18.8%); caesarean rates
were higher among older mothers, those having their first baby, and
those admitted as private patients.
- The upward trend in multiple pregnancies continued to a new
peak of 1.5% of all mothers.
- About 1 in 11 mothers had their first baby at age 35 years or
older; the average age for first-time mothers in 1998 was 27.0
years-continuing the upward trend in recent years.
- More than 5% (12,920) of new mothers were teenagers; of these
4,088 were 17 years or younger.
- The average age of all mothers in 1998 was 28.9 years; among
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers it was 24.7 years,
and for this group there was a high proportion of teenage mothers
(21.3%).
23 February 2001
Further information: Dr Paul Lancaster, NPSU,
tel. 02 9382 1047 or 02 9382 1014
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, tel. 02 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for availability, or the National
Perinatal Statistics Unit website