Perinatal deaths in Australia

Perinatal Deaths in Australia 1993-2012 has been published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. It includes a detailed analysis of stillbirth and neonatal death data for 2011-12 and examines trends back to 1993.

During 2011 and 2012, around 6000 babies died in the preinatal period; almost one in one hundred pregnancies. Approximately three-quarters of those deaths were stillbirths with the remainder being neonatal deaths. The highest perinatal mortality rate was recorded in Victoria (12.2 deaths per 1,000 births) and the lowest in New South Wales (8.3 deaths per 1,000 births). The perinatal mortality rate of babies born to mothers who identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander was almost double that of babies of non-Indigenous mothers. The perinatal mortality rate was almost 50% higher among babies whose mothers smoked compared with those who did not smoke. The stillbirth rate for babies of teenage mothers and mothers older than 45 was more than double that for mothers aged 30–34.