AIHW - Maternity Indicators - Antenatal Care Visit in First Trimester for All Women Giving Birth (%) (PHN) 2012-2016

This dataset presents the footprint of the percentage of antenatal care visits in the first trimester for all women giving birth, by the mother's usual residence. This has been calculated with the number of females who gave birth and who had their first antenatal care visit (before 14 weeks gestation), divided by the total number of females who gave birth with a stated first antenatal care visit, and multiplied by 100. The data spans the years of 2012-2016 and is aggregated to 2015 Department of Health Primary Health Network (PHN) areas, based on the 2011 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS).
The data is sourced from the National Perinatal Data Collection (NPDC), which is a national population-based cross-sectional collection of data on pregnancy and childbirth. The data are based on births reported to the perinatal data collection in each state and territory in Australia. Midwives and other birth attendants, using information obtained from mothers and from hospital or other records, complete notification forms for each birth. A standard de-identified extract is provided to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) on an annual basis to form the NPDC.
For further information about this dataset, please visit:


Australian Institute of Health and Welfare - National Core Maternity Indicators Data Tables.


Metadata Online Registry Entry.


Please note:


AURIN has spatially enabled the original data using the Department of Health - PHN Areas.


A birth is defined as an event in which a baby comes out of the uterus after a pregnancy of at least 20 weeks gestation or weighing 400 grams or more.


Gestational age is a clinical measure of the duration of the pregnancy. Gestational age at the time of the first antenatal care visit is assessed from the best estimate of gestational age available.


An antenatal care visit is an intentional encounter between a pregnant female and a midwife or doctor prior to labour to assess and improve maternal and fetal wellbeing throughout pregnancy and prior to labour.


All females who gave birth are included for the calculation of this indicator.


Caution should be used when interpreting these results. There was no standardised collection across jurisdictions for the data used to derive this indicator.


Records with missing or invalid data for gestational age at first antenatal visit were removed from the denominator. The valid range for gestational age is 3-46 weeks.


From 2014, Caesarean section at most recent previous birth indicator data item was introduced into the Perinatal NMDS. Although not an NMDS/DSS item prior to 2014, data items appear to match the data element developed by NPDDC, Caesarean section indicator (last previous birth).


For ACT, the first antenatal visit is often the first hospital antenatal clinic visit, scheduled for around 16-18 weeks of pregnancy. In many cases, earlier antenatal care provided by the woman’s general practitioner is not reported.


The sum of the reported 'Grouped by' values may not equal the Australia total.



Tags: health, population
Organization: Government of the Commonwealth of Australia - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare