Birthweight of babies born to Indigenous mothers

This paper provides an overview of the birthweight of babies born to Indigenous mothers, including recent trends and information on factors associated with birthweight variation. Summary Almost 4% of all babies born in 2011 were to Indigenous mothers In 2011, a total of 11,729 Indigenous mothers gave birth to 11,895 babies according to data from the National Perinatal Data Collection. These babies represented 3.9% of all births in 2011. Nearly all (99%) births to Indigenous mothers in 2011 were live births (rather than stillborn); this is the same proportion as for births to non-Indigenous mothers. Newborns of Indigenous mothers were twice as likely to be of low birthweight In 2011 and considering liveborn babies only: 12.6% of babies born to Indigenous mothers were of low birthweight (less than 2,500 grams), 86.0% were of normal birthweight (between 2,500 grams and 4,499 grams) and 1.4% were of high birthweight (4,500 grams or more) Indigenous mothers were twice as likely as non-Indigenous mothers to have babies of low birthweight (12.6% and 6.0% respectively) excluding multiple births, 11.2% of singleton babies born to Indigenous mothers were of low birthweight-2.5 times the rate for non-Indigenous mothers (4.6%) on average, the birthweight of singleton babies of Indigenous mothers (3,215 grams) was 191 grams lower than that of babies born to non-Indigenous mothers (3,406 grams). Gap in birthweight has narrowed over a decade Between 2000 and 2011, there was a statistically significant decrease in the low birthweight rate among liveborn singleton babies of Indigenous mothers, with the rate declining by 9% over the period (or by 0.1 low birthweight babies per 100 live births annually). In contrast, there was no significant change in the corresponding rate for non-Indigenous mothers. As such, there was a statistically significant narrowing of the gap in the rate for Indigenous and non-Indigenous mothers between 2000 and 2011. Decline in rate of pre-term births to Indigenous mothers and smoking during pregnancy A wide range of factors are associated with birthweight, including pre-term births and maternal smoking during pregnancy. In 2011, 12.5% of liveborn babies of Indigenous mothers were born pre-term, as were 7.5% of babies born to non-Indigenous mothers. Between 2000 and 2011, the rate of pre-term births among liveborn singleton babies of Indigenous mothers declined (by 7%), and the Indigenous to non-Indigenous gap in the pre-term birth rate narrowed significantly. Half (50%) of all Indigenous mothers who gave birth in 2011 reported smoking during pregnancy, as did 12% of non-Indigenous mothers. Smoking during pregnancy declined between 2005 and 2011, but improvement was greater among non-Indigenous mothers (25% drop) than Indigenous mothers (6% drop). Indigenous babies While the focus of this paper is on national data about the birthweight of babies born to Indigenous mothers, data about Indigenous babies are available for 6 jurisdictions for 2011. Of all liveborn Indigenous babies born in 2011 in the 6 jurisdictions, 11.5% were of low birthweight. National data about Indigenous babies will be available from 2012 onwards