Table 6

Perinatal outcomes by planned place of birth and parity*

Planned place of birthNo. of eventsNo. of births‡‡Incidence of events/1000 birthsUnadjusted ORAdjusted OR†
Stillbirth during labour, early and late neonatal death9211 251 4200.7
 Hospital8801 171 0500.811
 Birth centre3271 5050.40.60 (0.37–0.95)0.64 (0.40–1.02)
 Home982121.11.46 (0.62–3.47)1.55 (0.65–3.69)
Primiparous women425525 2050.8
 Hospital406494 0190.811
 Birth centre1528 8910.50.63 (0.32–1.24)0.65 (0.33–1.27)
 Homena2295nana2.12 (0.58–7.82)
Multiparous women496725 5160.7
 Hospital474677 0310.711
 Birth centre1742 5960.40.57 (0.30–1.08)0.65 (0.34–1.23)
 Homena5889nana1.29 (0.40–4.14)
Stillbirth during labour3991 251 4200.32
 Hospital3781 171 7030.3211
 Birth centre1771 5050.240.74 (0.39–1.40)0.78 (0.41–1.48)
 Homena8212nana1.56 (0.42–5.71)
Early neonatal death‡240881 064‡0.27
 Hospital221819 9630.2711
 Birth centre1455 3120.250.84 (0.46–1.91)0.94 (0.46–1.92)
 Homena5789nana3.18 (0.98–10.30)
Late neonatal death§95881 064‡0.11
 Hospital94819 9630.1111
 Birth centrena55 312nanana
 Home057890nana
Admission to SCN and/or NICU >48 hrs¶7500881 064‡8.51
 Hospital6908819 9638.4211
 Birth centre56255 31210.161.21 (1.08–1.35)1.24 (1.10–1.39)
 Home3057895.180.61 (0.38–0.98)0.63 (0.39–1.01)
Readmission to hospital within 28 days**37 5691 251 42030.02
 Hospital35 4131 171 70330.2211
 Birth centre196771 50527.510.91 (0.85–0.96)0.95 (0.90–1.01)
 Home189821223.020.76 (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.