Terminology
The terms ‘mothers’ or ‘women who gave birth’ have been used when referring to maternal characteristics, whereas ‘births’ refers to babies.
Sex and gender terminology
This report uses the terms ‘woman’ and ‘women’ to mean ‘female' when referring to data collected in the National Perinatal Data Collection (NPDC) and the National Maternal Mortality Data Collection (NMMDC) as these data sources are based on sex. Information on gender is not recorded in these data collections. ‘Woman’ and ‘women’ typically refers to groups of people aged 18 years and over; however in this report, people who were pregnant or gave birth aged less than 18 are included.
The terms ‘mother’ and ‘mothers’ refers to females who were pregnant and within the scope of these data collections.
It is acknowledged that this report includes people who do not identify as women or mothers, and that individual parents and families may use different words to those used in this report. This may include women, transgender men, intersex people, non-binary and gender diverse people.
First Nations terminology
The AIHW uses ‘First Nations people’ to refer to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people in this report.