Demographic characteristics by planned place of birth
| Hospital | Birth centre | Home | |
| All women | 1 171 703 (93.60%) | 71 505 (5.70%) | 8212 (0.70%) |
| Maternal age (years)—mean (SD) | 29.0 (5.6) | 29.8 (5.3) | 31.8 (5.0) |
| Maternal age (years) | |||
| <20 | 61 451 (5.2%) | 2044 (2.9%) | 71 (0.9%) |
| 20–24 | 200 386 (17.1%) | 10 116 (14.1%) | 548 (6.7%) |
| 25–29 | 348 785 (29.8%) | 21 579 (30.2%) | 2047 (24.9%) |
| 30–34 | 365 022 (31.2%) | 23 949 (33.5%) | 3058 (37.2%) |
| 35–39 | 167 803 (14.3%) | 11 931 (16.7%) | 1997 (24.3%) |
| ≥40 | 28 177 (2.4%) | 1886 (2.6%) | 474 (5.8%) |
| Missing | 79 (0.0%) | 0 (0.0%) | 17 (0.2%) |
| Previous pregnancies (≥20 weeks) | |||
| 0 | 494 019 (42.2%) | 28 891 (40.4%) | 2295 (27.9%) |
| 1 | 376 047 (32.1%) | 25 079 (35.1%) | 2745 (33.4%) |
| 2 | 174 873 (14.9%) | 11 364 (15.9%) | 1688 (20.6%) |
| ≥3 | 126 111 (10.8%) | 6153 (8.6%) | 1456 (17.7%) |
| Not stated | 653 (0.1%) | 18 (0.0%) | 28 (0.3%) |
| Gestation *— mean ( SD ) | 39.5 (1.0) | 39.6 (1.0) | 39.8 (1.0) |
| Gestation* | |||
| 37 | 54 825 (4.7%) | 2403 (3.4%) | 209 (2.5%) |
| 38 | 155 764 (13.3%) | 7470 (10.4%) | 724 (8.8%) |
| 39 | 323 179 (27.6%) | 18 278 (25.6%) | 1666 (20.3%) |
| 40 | 481 665 (41.1%) | 29 289 (41.0%) | 3779 (46.0%) |
| 41 | 156 270 (13.3%) | 14 065 (19.7%) | 1834 (22.3%) |
| Maternal country of birth | |||
| Australia | 889 550 (75.9%) | 56 201 (78.6%) | 6822 (83.1%) |
| Others | 276 001 (23.6%) | 15 105 (21.1%) | 1188 (14.5%) |
| Inadequately described/not stated | 6152 (0.5%) | 199 (0.3%) | 202 (2.5%) |
χ2 tests on categorical data within each subheading between birth settings yielded statistically significant differences with p<0.001 in all categories with no missing or not stated data. GLM revealed significant differences at p<0.0001 between means in all pairwise comparisons.
Percentages may not total exactly 100% due to rounding.
*Gestation is in completed weeks.
BMI, body mass index; GLM, General linear model; SCN, Special care nursery; SCU, Special care unit.