The Australian Government Department of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Data Collection Overview

South Australian Perinatal Statistics Collection (SA PDC)

Data Collection Sources

Midwives complete a notification form (the supplementary birth record form (SBR)) for all births within the scope of the collection.

Institutional environments

Hospital and homebirth midwives and neonatal nurses are responsible for completing the SBR. Perinatal data are provided under legislation, the South Australian Health Care Regulations 2008. Notifications for medical terminations of pregnancy are made by doctors, under the Criminal Law Consolidation (Medical Termination of Pregnancy) Regulations 2011.

Relevance and Scope

The SA PDC includes live births, stillbirths and terminations of pregnancy of at least 400g birthweight or 20 weeks gestation. The South Australian Perinatal Statistics Collection includes all births occurring in South Australia, including those to women who normally reside interstate. Births of South Australian residents which occur in other states are not included. Perinatal data have been collected since 1981, but there have been changes in the data items collected over the years. Annual reports are provided on the characteristics of the women giving birth, obstetric practice and outcomes and trends over time. Clinical indicators are reported for the state and hospital categories. Individual hospital reports are provided to hospitals with at least 100 births per year and group reports for hospitals with smaller numbers of births including comparisons with the state and hospital categories.

Timeliness

Reports are produced annually. The most recent report, Pregnancy Outcome in South Australia 2016 was published in September 2018 using data from 2016.

Accuracy

The SBRs are checked manually for completeness and data discrepancies and then progress through a series of automated validation procedures during data entry or data transfer for electronic forms. Guidelines and definitions are provided to all South Australian obstetric units to promote uniform completion of the forms.

Accessibility

The Pregnancy Outcome Unit, Prevention and Population Health, SA Health publishes the following reports which are available in hard copy and online:
• Pregnancy Outcome in South Australia; and
• Maternal and Perinatal Mortality in South Australia, including the South Australian Protocol for Investigation of stillbirths.
Data are available on request from the data custodian.

Interpretability

There is a guideline available for midwives completing the SBRs. Definitions are also included in the text and Appendix of the Pregnancy Outcome in SA report.