Perinatal outcomes by planned place of birth and parity*
| Planned place of birth | No. of events | No. of births‡‡ | Incidence of events/1000 births | Unadjusted OR | Adjusted OR† |
| Stillbirth during labour, early and late neonatal death | 921 | 1 251 420 | 0.7 | ||
| Hospital | 880 | 1 171 050 | 0.8 | 1 | 1 |
| Birth centre | 32 | 71 505 | 0.4 | 0.60 (0.37–0.95) | 0.64 (0.40–1.02) |
| Home | 9 | 8212 | 1.1 | 1.46 (0.62–3.47) | 1.55 (0.65–3.69) |
| Primiparous women | 425 | 525 205 | 0.8 | ||
| Hospital | 406 | 494 019 | 0.8 | 1 | 1 |
| Birth centre | 15 | 28 891 | 0.5 | 0.63 (0.32–1.24) | 0.65 (0.33–1.27) |
| Home | na | 2295 | na | na | 2.12 (0.58–7.82) |
| Multiparous women | 496 | 725 516 | 0.7 | ||
| Hospital | 474 | 677 031 | 0.7 | 1 | 1 |
| Birth centre | 17 | 42 596 | 0.4 | 0.57 (0.30–1.08) | 0.65 (0.34–1.23) |
| Home | na | 5889 | na | na | 1.29 (0.40–4.14) |
| Stillbirth during labour | 399 | 1 251 420 | 0.32 | ||
| Hospital | 378 | 1 171 703 | 0.32 | 1 | 1 |
| Birth centre | 17 | 71 505 | 0.24 | 0.74 (0.39–1.40) | 0.78 (0.41–1.48) |
| Home | na | 8212 | na | na | 1.56 (0.42–5.71) |
| Early neonatal death‡ | 240 | 881 064‡ | 0.27 | ||
| Hospital | 221 | 819 963 | 0.27 | 1 | 1 |
| Birth centre | 14 | 55 312 | 0.25 | 0.84 (0.46–1.91) | 0.94 (0.46–1.92) |
| Home | na | 5789 | na | na | 3.18 (0.98–10.30) |
| Late neonatal death§ | 95 | 881 064‡ | 0.11 | ||
| Hospital | 94 | 819 963 | 0.11 | 1 | 1 |
| Birth centre | na | 55 312 | na | na | na |
| Home | 0 | 5789 | 0 | na | na |
| Admission to SCN and/or NICU >48 hrs¶ | 7500 | 881 064‡ | 8.51 | ||
| Hospital | 6908 | 819 963 | 8.42 | 1 | 1 |
| Birth centre | 562 | 55 312 | 10.16 | 1.21 (1.08–1.35) | 1.24 (1.10–1.39) |
| Home | 30 | 5789 | 5.18 | 0.61 (0.38–0.98) | 0.63 (0.39–1.01) |
| Readmission to hospital within 28 days** | 37 569 | 1 251 420 | 30.02 | ||
| Hospital | 35 413 | 1 171 703 | 30.22 | 1 | 1 |
| Birth centre | 1967 | 71 505 | 27.51 | 0.91 (0.85–0.96) | 0.95 (0.90–1.01) |
| Home | 189 | 8212 | 23.02 | 0.76 (0.63–0.91) | 0.83 (0.68–1.00) |
*Parity refers to previous pregnancies>20 weeks.
†Logistic regression was undertaken with adjustments occurring for maternal age, country of birth, gestational age and parity at 99% CI. Any case with missing data was excluded from the regression.
‡Early neonatal death: death of a liveborn infant occurring within seven completed days from the time of birth.
§Excluded VIC.
¶Late neonatal death: death of a liveborn infant occurring after seven completed days but before 29 completed days.
**NICU and SCN were combined due to complexities in the data to separate them out for all states and territories, except the Northern Territory where there was only SCN available and for South Australia where only NICU was available.
††For home births, this is defined as admission to hospital following birth within 28 days.
‡‡Denominator excluded missing parity information. The denominator in the first section of this table has 699 records with missing data for parity. Because this part of the data analysis was stratified by parity, we excluded the women whose parity data were unavailable.
na, cell size <5 so unable to report data or calculate incidence or OR; NICU, neonatal intensive care unit; VIC, Victoria.