Analyzing the impact of disadvantage on mothers and babies

07/06/2023

The study examined 18 years of routinely collected perinatal admissions data.
The data represented 1,188,872 singleton births in Victoria between January 1999 and December 2016.
Adverse outcomes experienced disproportionally by disadvantaged women included: admission to Intensive Care Unit (ICU), postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) and cesarean section, preterm birth, low birthweight, admission to special care nursery/neonatal intensive care unit (SCN/NICU) and stillbirth or neonatal death.
Social determinants of health that contribute to poorer maternal and neonatal outcomes include being single, living in a low socioeconomic area, young maternal age, obesity, smoking and rurality or remoteness.
Women living in low Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) locations had worse outcomes.