April 11th, 2009, 09:58 AM
#11
I just got this email
708 babies born at home in 2006. All were liveborn.
Homebirths
In 2006, 708 planned homebirths, representing 0.3% of all women who gave birth, were reported
nationally. The highest proportion of homebirths occurred in the Northern Territory (Table
3.11). It is probable that not all homebirths are reported to the perinatal data collections.
The mean age of mothers who gave birth at home in 2006 was 32.1 years (Table 3.34). The
proportion of mothers aged less than 20 years was 0.7%, and the proportion aged 35 years and
over was 33.6%. The proportion of mothers who gave birth at home who identified as being of
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin was 0.7%. The largest proportion of women who had
a homebirth lived in major cities (61.9%) (Table 3.34).
48
Of mothers who gave birth at home, one-quarter had their first baby (25.0%), and 74.4% were
multiparous. The method of birth was spontaneous vaginal for 97.5% of women who gave birth
at home (Table 3.34), and the presentation was vertex for 97.3% of women who gave birth at
home. The average age of first-time mothers who gave birth at home was 30.1 years.
Of babies born at home in 2006, all were liveborn. The mean birthweight of these liveborn
babies was 3,687 grams (Table 3.34). The proportion of liveborn babies of low birthweight born
at home was 0.8%, and the proportion of babies born at home that were preterm was 0.7%.
<http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/per/amb06/amb06.pdf
In summary:
280 078 total births in Australia in 2006
2,091 fetal deaths
Stillborn rate of 7.4 per 1000 births
All 708 planned homebirths were liveborn.
I take that to mean that 2,091 babies died in hospital, and none at home.
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