20 years

34 years

The number of selected females giving birth for the first time who gave birth by caesarean section, divided by all selected females, and multiplied by 100.

Selected females criteria: Females included are those who gave birth for the first time and met all of the following criteria:

• aged between 20 and 34
• gestational age at birth between 37 and 41 completed weeks
• pregnancy has one baby only (singleton)
• the presentation of the baby is vertex (baby's head was at the cervix)

Excluded are those females who have given birth prior to the current birth or who did not meet the selected females criteria.

A birth is defined as the 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.

Caesarean section is an operative procedure to remove the baby through an incision through a female's abdomen and uterus.

Gestational age is a clinical measure of the duration of the pregnancy. For the National Perinatal Data Collection gestational age is reported as completed weeks.

100 × (Numerator ÷ Denominator)

The number of selected females giving birth for the first time who gave birth by caesarean section.

All selected females.

• Year of birth
• State or territory of birth
• Hospital annual number of births
• Remoteness category (from mother's area of usual residence)
• Indigenous status of mother
• Hospital sector
• Primary Health Network (from mother's area of usual residence)
• Statistical local area 3 (from mother's area of usual residence)

Data elements are from the Perinatal National Minimum Data Set (NMDS) or have been provided as voluntary non-standardised items by the states and territories. Records with data that are missing, not stated or not interpretable have been excluded from the denominator.

For Tasmania from 2005 to 2012, presentations via caesarean births were not reported by hospital still using paper-based form. Where a caesarean section occurred the presentation was recorded as 'Not stated'. Presentations via caesarean births was included in the paper-based form from 1 January 2013. As a result, Tasmania can only be reported 2013 onwards for selected females. The year 2004 was not included in this analysis as trend for after this year could not be undertaken due to the above issue.

Data for parity, a criteria to selected females, were not available from Victoria in 2009.

Patient election status is available from all jurisdictions from 2006.

Source of definition: Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) Indicator 1.4: Selected women giving birth for the first time undergoing caesarean section. This ACHS indicator is based on the definition by Women's Healthcare Australasia Core Maternity Indicators Project (WHA 2007).

N[NN.N]

ACHS (The Australian Council on Healthcare Standards, Health Services Research Group, University of Newcastle) 2014. The Australasian Clinical Indicator Report: 2006-2013. 15th edn. Sydney: ACHS. Viewed 9 April 2018, https://www.achs.org.au/media/88679/clinical_indicator_report_2006_2013.pdf.

WHA (Women's Healthcare Australasia) 2007. Supporting excellence in maternity care: the core maternity indicators project: findings from the core maternity indicators project. Canberra: WHA.