Australia's mothers and babies

Almost all births in Australia took place in hospitals (97%) in conventional labour wards. Of mothers who gave birth in hospital, 3 in 4 (75%) did so in a public hospital. A small proportion of mothers gave birth elsewhere, including birth centres (2.0%), at home (0.5%), or in other settings (such as before arrival at hospital) (0.7%).

Figure 1 presents data on the place of birth of women who gave birth, by selected maternal characteristics, for 2021. Select the trend button to see how data has changed over an 11-year period (where available).

Figure 1: Proportion of women who gave birth, by place of birth and selected topic

For more information on place of birth see National Perinatal Data Collection annual update data tables 2.20, 2.21 and 2.22.