The New South Wales Perinatal Data Collection (PDC) is a population-based surveillance system covering all births in NSW public and private hospitals, as well as home births. It encompasses all live births, and stillbirths of at least 20 weeks gestation or at least 400 grams birthweight.
The PDC relies on the attending midwife or doctor to complete an electronic notification when a birth occurs. The electronic notification captures items described in PD2015_025 NSW Perinatal Data Collection (PDC) Reporting and Submission Requirements from 1 January 2016.1 These items include demographic, maternal health, pregnancy, labour, birth, and perinatal outcomes. Completed notifications are transferred electronically to the state database, which is managed by System Information and Analytics Branch within the Patient Experience and System Performance Division of the NSW Ministry of Health. The PDC data dictionary can be found at CHeReL - Datasets.
There are several maternity information systems used in NSW hospitals that contribute information to the PDC. In 2022, the largest source of PDC records was eMaternity, which supplied 57.9% of all PDC records. Cerner systems supplied 17.1% of PDC records (public hospitals in Sydney and South Western Sydney Local Health Districts). Meditech, which includes 5 Ramsay Private Hospitals (North Shore Private Hospital, Westmead Private Hospital, St George Private Hospital, Kareena Private Hospital and Wollongong Private Hospital), supplied 8.2% of all PDC records. Healthscope Hospitals (Prince of Wales Private Hospital, Norwest Private Hospital, Sydney South West Private Hospital, Nepean Private Hospital, and Newcastle Private Hospital) supplied 7.6% of PDC records. The Mater Hospital, North Sydney, database supplied 2.4% of PDC records, 2.6% of PDC records were supplied from the Sydney Adventist Hospital database and 1.9% of PDC records were supplied from the Northern Beaches Hospital database.
The PDC receives notifications of women whose usual place of residence is outside NSW but who give birth in NSW. However, the PDC does not receive notifications of births outside NSW to women usually resident in NSW.
The Maternal and Child Health Register is a dataset of linked de-identified records that has been established under the Public Health and Disease Registers provisions of the NSW Public Health Act 2010. It includes records from the following data collections for children and young people aged less than 16 years and women aged 12 to 55 years:
An Enhanced Reporting of Aboriginality (ERA) variable is available on the Maternal and Child Heath Register. This variable uses linkage with routinely collected population-based health and health-related data collections in NSW to obtain more accurate information about Aboriginal people than is currently available in individual collections, and thus is able to more accurately identify and monitor risk factors for diseases and conditions that are different for Aboriginal people compared to non-Aboriginal people.
Enhanced reporting relies on having independent sources of information on whether a person is Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.2 Each independent report is counted as a “unit of information” that contributes to the weight of evidence as to whether a person is reported as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. ERA uses the following algorithm to determine whether a person is reported as Aboriginal:
For mothers and babies, ERA is based on the weight of evidence from linked records of the PDC, Admitted Patient Data Collection (APDC), Emergency Department Data Collection, Australian Coordinating Registry Cause of Death Unit Record File, and Register of Births, Deaths and Marriages (RBDM) birth registration data. In this web report, APDC records do not contribute to the mother’s or baby’s ERA where there is a corresponding linked PDC birth record. This is because, from 2012, information on a person’s Aboriginality as reported on the PDC is usually obtained from the hospital’s patient administration system and is not an independent source of information.
The Maternal and Child Health Register linkage is updated regularly for all years of data. Reported numbers of Aboriginal mothers and babies according to ERA for a particular birth year are subject to change as additional information on health service use is made available.
The NSW Maternal and Perinatal Mortality Review Committee (MPMRC) was established under the Health Administration Act 1982 (NSW), and is privileged under the Act to carry out confidential reviews of both maternal and perinatal deaths. Members are appointed by the Minister for Health.
The MPMRC reviews each maternal death to classify the death, identify the cause of death, ascertain any possible avoidable factors and identify lessons to be learnt. A sub-committee of MPMRC members, known as the Perinatal Mortality Review Subcommittee, reviews perinatal deaths among liveborn babies, and stillbirths of at least 20 weeks gestation or at least 400 grams birthweight. The information obtained from these reviews assists in the development of policies aimed at improving the health of mothers and newborns in NSW. Information considered by the Committee is confidential.
Information on causes of death were obtained from the NSW Perinatal Death Review (PDR) for 2021. The PDR includes information on all perinatal deaths, including deaths that occurred after discharge or transfer from the hospital of birth; however, the PDR does not include death information for babies who were born in NSW and died interstate. Stillbirths and neonatal cause of death were classified to the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand (PSANZ) Perinatal Death Classification.3 Information on causes of death is reported on the basis of the year of birth.
Refer to Map of local health districts.
