Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are born healthy and strong.

By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander babies with a healthy birthweight to 91%

Use of antenatal care by pregnant women:

• proportion with five or more antenatal visits
• proportion with at least one antenatal care visit in the first trimester

There are two measures for this indicator.

Measure 1 is the proportion of women with five or more antenatal visits defined as:

Numerator – number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who gave birth at 32 weeks or more gestation and who attended five or more antenatal visits

Denominator – number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who gave birth at 32 weeks or more gestation

and is presented as a percentage.

Measure 2 is the proportion of women with at least one antenatal care visit in the first trimester defined as:

Numerator – number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who gave birth and who attended at least one antenatal visit in the first trimester

Denominator – number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who gave birth

and is presented as a percentage.

National Agreement on Closing the Gap July 2020

12 March 2025

Driver

For both measures, a high or increasing proportion is desirable.

Name: National Perinatal Data Collection (NPDC)

Frequency: Annual

Documentation (links): https://www.aihw.gov.au/about-our-data/our-data-collections/national-perinatal-data-collection

Provider name: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)

Provider area: Perinatal

2017

2022

Both measures:

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status of mother.

Numerator divided by Denominator multiplied by 100.

Counting rules

Both measures

The data relates to women who gave birth, whether resulting in a live or still birth. Births both less than 20 weeks gestation and less than 400 grams birthweight are not included in the NPDC.

Indigenous status is that of the mother.

The data is by state and territory of the usual residence of the mother.

The data excludes Australian non‑residents, residents of external territories and records where state/territory of residence was not stated.

Antenatal visits relate to care provided by skilled birth attendants for reasons related to pregnancy.

Measure 1

Includes (numerator and denominator):

• Women who gave birth at 32 weeks or more gestation to a live birth or stillbirth.

Excludes (numerator and denominator):

• Women with unknown gestation.
• Women whose number of antenatal visits was ‘Not stated’.
• Women whose Indigenous status was not stated. (Data on the number of births where the Indigenous status was not stated is provided for context.)

Measure 2

First trimester is up to and including 13 completed weeks.

Excludes (numerator and denominator):

• Women whose duration of pregnancy at first antenatal visit was ‘Not stated’.
• Women whose Indigenous status was not stated. (Data on the number of births where the Indigenous status was not stated is provided for context.)

Supporting calculations

• Variability bands (provided for proportions). See the How to interpret data for further information: https://www.pc.gov.au/closing-the-gap-data/how-to/interpret-data.
• Age-standardised proportions (for comparisons by Indigenous status). Age‑standardised proportions use the 2001 Australian female Estimated Resident Population (ERP) aged 15–44 as the standard population. Five‑year age groups are used for age-standardisation, with the exception of the upper age group of 35–44 years. The lowest age group was 15–19 years. Data are not comparable with data based on different age groups. Age‑standardised proportions have not been calculated if any age-stratified group has fewer than 30 individuals. These data are reported as np.

Data for these measures align with similar measures in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework.

Both measures

In the NPDC, Indigenous status is a measure of whether a person identifies as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin. All jurisdictions have a data item to record Indigenous status of the mother and Indigenous status of the baby on their perinatal form, although there are some differences among the jurisdictions. See https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/mothers-babies/australias-mothers-babies/contents/technical-notes/data-quality-and-availability

Data recorded about antenatal visits is based on visits recorded in the woman’s clinical record and may not include all antenatal visits outside the hospital setting, such as with a general practitioner or private obstetrician. For the Australian Capital Territory, in many cases early antenatal care provided by the woman’s general practitioner is not reported.

In 2022, the Australian Capital Territory data was compiled from births occurring between January and October 2022, supplemented by births in November and December 2021.

AIHW has suppressed numbers less than five (reported as np) and selected surrounding cells to prevent back-calculation (consequential suppression). This is in line with guidelines for protecting the privacy of individuals. Exceptions to this are small numbers in ‘Other’ and ‘Not stated’ categories. All suppressed numbers have been included in the totals.

Measure 2

For the Australian Capital Territory, first antenatal visit is often the first hospital antenatal clinic visit.

Future reporting will seek to include the following additional disaggregations:

• remoteness areas
• socio‑economic status of the locality
• disability status of mother.