Maternal health insurance

Overview

Operative and instrumental births are more common among privately than publicly insured mothers. Among privately insured mothers who gave birth in NSW, the rate of normal vaginal birth decreased from 42.5% in 2018 to 38.6% in 2022 and the caesarean section rate increased from 43.9% to 49.4%. Among publicly insured mothers who gave birth in NSW, the rate of normal vaginal birth decreased from 59.0% in 2018 to 55.4% in 2022 and the caesarean section rate increased from 29.8% to 33.6%.

Maternal health insurance by type of birth, NSW 2018–2022

By number of births

Insurance status–Type of birth	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Public–Normal vaginal	36827	36449	34997	36591	33333
Public–Forceps	2925	2827	2871	2875	2642
Public–Vacuum extraction	3771	3733	3834	4127	3713
Public–Vaginal breech	261	261	270	251	234
Public–Elective caesarean section	11124	11183	11460	12877	12044
Public–Emergency caesarean section¹	7474	7512	8267	8886	8201
Public–Not stated	1	0	0	0	0
Public–Total	62383	61965	61699	65607	60167
Private–Normal vaginal	13209	12258	10832	11713	10901
Private–Forceps	1431	1280	1184	1227	1086
Private–Vacuum extraction	2735	2704	2421	2532	2264
Private–Vaginal breech	62	62	52	64	49
Private–Elective caesarean section	9707	9703	9399	10518	10264
Private–Emergency caesarean section¹	3954	3891	3699	4015	3699
Private–Not stated	0	0	0	0	0
Private–Total	31098	29898	27587	30069	28263
Total–Normal vaginal	50451	49716	46831	49644	45421
Total–Forceps	4386	4208	4180	4235	3803
Total–Vacuum extraction	6549	6612	6459	6910	6146
Total–Vaginal breech	333	328	324	321	290
Total–Elective caesarean section	20951	21255	21256	23732	22622
Total–Emergency caesarean section¹	11498	11639	12190	13163	12134
Total–Not stated	2	0	0	1	1
Total²	94170	93758	91240	98006	90417

By percentage of births

Insurance status–Type of birth	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Public–Normal vaginal	59.0	58.8	56.7	55.8	55.4
Public–Forceps	4.7	4.6	4.7	4.4	4.4
Public–Vacuum extraction	6.0	6.0	6.2	6.3	6.2
Public–Vaginal breech	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4
Public–Elective caesarean section	17.8	18.0	18.6	19.6	20.0
Public–Emergency caesarean section¹	12.0	12.1	13.4	13.5	13.6
Public–Not stated	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Public–Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Private–Normal vaginal	42.5	41.0	39.3	39.0	38.6
Private–Forceps	4.6	4.3	4.3	4.1	3.8
Private–Vacuum extraction	8.8	9.0	8.8	8.4	8.0
Private–Vaginal breech	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2
Private–Elective caesarean section	31.2	32.5	34.1	35.0	36.3
Private–Emergency caesarean section¹	12.7	13.0	13.4	13.4	13.1
Private–Not stated	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Private–Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Total–Normal vaginal	53.6	53.0	51.3	50.7	50.2
Total–Forceps	4.7	4.5	4.6	4.3	4.2
Total–Vacuum extraction	7.0	7.1	7.1	7.1	6.8
Total– Vaginal breech	0.4	0.3	0.4	0.3	0.3
Total– Elective caesarean section	22.2	22.7	23.3	24.2	25.0
Total– Emergency caesarean section¹	12.2	12.4	13.4	13.4	13.4
Total–Not stated	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Total²	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0

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Maternal health insurance by type of birth, NSW 2018–2022

Notes

Source: Maternal and Child Health Register (SAPHaRI). Centre for Epidemiology and Evidence, NSW Ministry of Health.

Figures for 2018 to 2021 differ to those reported previously as the linkage has been updated.

Emergency caesarean section includes cases where caesarean section was reported but type of onset of labour was not reported.
Total includes mothers who gave birth in NSW where type of health insurance was not stated.

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Maternal health insurance by type of birth, NSW 2018–2022

By number of births

By percentage of births

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Maternal health insurance by type of birth, NSW 2018–2022

By number of births

By percentage of births

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