Summary
This second report on the health indicators in the National Partnership Agreement on Indigenous Early Childhood Development finds areas of improvement as well as areas of concern in the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and mothers.
Antenatal care
In 2010, 51% of Indigenous mothers attended at least 1 antenatal visit in the first trimester of pregnancy in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory combined. Although the majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers access antenatal care at least once during their pregnancy, they tend to access these services later and less often than other mothers.
Teenage rates of sexually transmissible and bloodborne virus infections
Between 2010 and 2012, in jurisdictions with at least 50% completeness of Indigenous status reporting for teenagers aged 15–19, notification rates for chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis were much higher for Indigenous teenagers than for other teenagers (6,8 07 and 1,560 per 100,000 for chlamydia; 3,182 and 55 per 100,000 for gonorrhoea ; and 81 and 3 per 100,000 for syphilis).
Low birthweight
Between 2008 and 2010, for all Australia, singleton live babies born to Indigenous mothers were 2.4 times as likely to have low birthweight as those born to non-Indigenous mothers. The proportion of low birthweight babies born to Indigenous mothers, and the gap, declined substantially between 2000 and 2010. Infants who are born with low birthweight are at greater risk than other infants of poor health, disability and death in the first year of life.
Substance use during pregnancy
Nationally, in 2010, 51% of Indigenous mothers smoked during pregnancy. Indigenous mothers were almost 4 times as likely as non-Indigenous mothers to have smoked during pregnancy (age-standardised rates of 49% and 13%, respectively). These figures did not change substantially between 2007 and 2010. Smoking during pregnancy is a significant risk factor for the mother and her baby, for whom the effects persist into childhood
