AIHW - Maternity Indicators - General Anaesthetic for Women Giving Birth by C-section (%) (PHN) 2012-2016

This dataset presents the footprint of the percentage of women who gave birth by caesarean section and had a general anaesthetic, by the mother's usual residence. This has been calculated with the number of females who gave birth by caesarean section and had a general anaesthetic, divided by the number of females who gave birth by caesarean section and recorded a non-missing value for general anaesthetic, and multiplied by 100. The data spans the years of 2012-2016 and is aggregated to 2015 Department of Health Primary Health Network (PHN) areas, based on the 2011 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). The data is sourced from the National Perinatal Data Collection (NPDC), which is a national population-based cross-sectional collection of data on pregnancy and childbirth. The data are based on births reported to the perinatal data collection in each state and territory in Australia. Midwives and other birth attendants, using information obtained from mothers and from hospital or other records, complete notification forms for each birth. A standard de-identified extract is provided to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) on an annual basis to form the NPDC. For further information about this dataset, please visit:

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare - National Core Maternity Indicators Data Tables.

Metadata Online Registry Entry.

Please note:

AURIN has spatially enabled the original data using the Department of Health - PHN Areas.

A birth is defined as an event in which a baby comes out of the uterus after a pregnancy of at least 20 weeks gestation or weighing 400 grams or more.

Caesarean section is an operative procedure to remove the baby through an incision through the female's abdomen and uterus.

Included are those females who gave birth by caesarean section.

Excluded are those females who gave birth through the vagina.

Caution should be used when interpreting these results. There was no standardised collection across jurisdictions for the data used to derive this indicator.

Data were not available for Victoria in 2009 and 2010.

The sum of the reported 'Grouped by' values may not equal the Australia total.