Summary

  • In 1999, 257,394 babies born to 253,352 mothers were notified to perinatal data collections in the States and Territories, a 0.7% increase in the number of births compared with 1998. This represents a birth every 2 minutes and approximately 705 births per day in Australia in 1999.
  • The average age of all mothers in 1999 was 29.0 years, and 27.1 years for those having their first baby, continuing the upward trend in recent years. There were 12,983 teenage mothers (5.1% of all mothers), of whom 4,115 were aged 17 years or younger.
  • An increasing number of women appeared to be deferring childbearing. Almost 1 in 10 (9.5%) mothers in 1999 were having their first baby at age 35 years or older.
  • There  were  8,822  Indigenous  mothers  representing  3.5%  of  all  mothers  in Australia in 1999. One-third (36.5%) of births in the Northern Territory were to Indigenous mothers. The proportion of births to Indigenous mothers in Western Australia and Queensland were 6.1% and 5.9%, respectively. The average age of Indigenous mothers was 24.5 years and there was a high proportion of teenage mothers (22.0%).
  • The proportion of mothers who were born in a country other than Australia was 22.5% in 1999.
  • Multiple pregnancies accounted for 1.6% of all confinements and included 3,821 twin pregnancies, 104 triplet pregnancies, and 4 higher order pregnancies.
  • In  1999,  more  than  1  in  5  (21.9%)  births  were  by  caesarean  section.  South Australia (24.9%) had the highest caesarean rate in 1999 and the Australian Capital Territory (19.6%) the lowest. Caesarean rates were higher among older mothers, those having their first baby, and those who were private patients.
  • More mothers had relatively short postnatal stays in hospital in 1999 than in previous years. The proportion who stayed less than 2 days increased from 3.2% in 1991 to 11.6% in 1999, while the proportion of those staying between 2 and 4 days increased from 35% to 55.4% in the same period. Mothers without private health insurance had shorter postnatal stays than those with private health insurance.
  • Low birthweight (less than 2,500 g) occurred in 17,208 (6.7%) babies in 1999, remaining steady over recent years. The average birthweight of babies of Indigenous mothers was 3,149 g, 211 g less than the average for all births; 13.0% of  Indigenous  babies  had  a  low  birthweight,  almost  twice   the   national proportion.
  • Fetal, neonatal and perinatal death rates were 7.0, 3.2 and 10.1 per 1,000 births, respectively, in 1999, based on State and Territory perinatal data collections. Rates remain low, having steadily declined for the past two decades. The perinatal death rates ranged from 20.3 in the Northern Territory to 8.3 deaths per 1,000  births  in  South  Australia.  Perinatal  deaths  were  more  likely  to  occur amongst babies born to either relatively younger or older mothers.