2.3 Antenatal care

Antenatal care is a system of regular medical check-ups throughout the course of pregnancy, to monitor and enhance the safety and wellbeing of both mother and child.

There is a strong relationship between regular antenatal care and positive child health outcomes. Women who do not receive antenatal care are more likely to have adverse pregnancy outcomes, including preterm birth, post-partum haemorrhage, babies with low birth weight and perinatal death.

The National Indigenous Reform Agreement sets a benchmark of at least five antenatal visits during pregnancy.

Trend data: For all indicator displays, the yearly trend is limited to indicators with 3 or more years (including the current year) of comparable time series data. To see the trend click on “Yearly Trend” button on the display. Where 3 or more years of comparable data including the most recent year is not available, a “No time series data” message is shown on the display.

The first figure is a horizontal bar graph showing the proportion of women who had zero, 1, 2 to 4, or 5 or more antenatal visits during pregnancy, by Indigenous status. Data can be presented by select years, 2010 to 2019.

The second figure is a line graph showing the proportion of women who had zero, 1, 2 to 4 or 5 or more antenatal visits during pregnancy from 2016 to 2019, by Indigenous status.

Source: AIHW National Perinatal Data Collection

See the supplementary data tables for further information and footnotes about these data.

For more information on antenatal care, see the Australia’s mothers and babies reporting.

Indicator technical specifications

The information below provides technical specifications for the summary indicator data presented in the quick reference guide.

National Framework Indicator 2.3 Antenatal care: Proportion of women who had at least five antenatal visits during pregnancy
  Definition Data source
Numerator Number of women who gave birth at 32 weeks or more gestation, who had at least five antenatal visits during pregnancy AIHW National Perinatal Data Collection
Denominator Number of women who gave birth at 32 weeks or more gestation, in the reference period AIHW National Perinatal Data Collection

Explanatory notes

This indicator aligns with the antenatal care indicator in the National Indigenous Reform Agreement, which sets a benchmark of at least five antenatal visits during pregnancy, and the numerator and denominator include women who gave birth at 32 weeks or more of gestation (whether resulting in live or still birth).

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