NAIDOC week invites all Australians to embrace the true history of Australia. With the spotlight on Indigenous communities, we look at the issue of stillbirth – the hidden tragedy impacting many Australians.
Sadly, in Australia, about 6 babies are stillborn every day. For Indigenous women that rate is doubled. Professor Caroline Homer, President of the Australian College of Midwives called the disparity a “national disgrace.”
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report that babies born to mothers living in remote and very remote areas were 65 per cent more likely to die during the perinatal period compared to their non-remote counterparts. Many Indigenous women live in remote areas of NSW.
The following AIHW Table provides insight into causes of death of stillborn babies born to Indigenous women.
Perinatal mortality rates by Indigenous status of the baby in Australia, 2013−14
Whilst the rates indicated in the above table are grim, progress albeit slow is on foot and, according to Dr Al-Yaman “Between 2005 and 2016, the rate of stillbirth among babies born to Indigenous women fell from 11.8 to 10.5 per 1,000 births.”[1]
Despite the headway, worryingly – one study in Queensland found “that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women continued to be at increased risk of stillbirth as a result of potentially preventable factors including maternal conditions, perinatal infection, FGR (foetal growth restriction) and unexplained antepartum foetal death”[2]
With continued focus and investment in Indigenous health outcomes and in particular Indigenous women’s maternity and perinatal care, hopefully the numbers of stillbirth experienced by Indigenous women will continue to fall.
____________________________________________
[1]https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Stillbirth_Research_and_Education/Stillbirth/Report/c02
[2] Ibiebele, Coory, Boyle, et al, ‘Stillbirth Rates Among Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Women in Queensland, Australia’, p. 1482.
