Several factors influence a baby’s length of stay in hospital, including birthweight and gestational age. Babies who had a low birthweight or who were born pre-term were much more likely to stay in hospital for 6 days or more (58% and 59%, respectively), compared with normal birthweight babies (4.0%) and babies born at term (3.4%).
Babies who stayed in hospital for 6 or more days were more likely to be:
- born in a private hospital (8.7%)
- born to mothers aged 40 and over (11%)
- born to mothers who smoked (11%)
- born by caesarean section (11%)
- part of a twin birth (49%)
- born to mothers from Very remote areas (14%)
- babies who had an Apgar score of less than 7 (34% for an Apgar score of 0–3 and 24% for a score of 4–6).
It is important to note that many of these factors are potentially interrelated, for example, mothers aged 40 and over are more likely to give birth in private hospitals.
Some groups of babies also have a longer median length of stay in hospital, which is reflected in the data visualisation below.