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Perinatal outcomes of women with a disability who received pregnancy care through a specialised disability clinic in Melbourne, Australia
Author(s) -
Smithson Charlie A.,
McLachlan Helen L.,
Newton Michelle S.,
Smith Cherise,
Forster Della A.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of obstetrics and gynaecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.734
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1479-828X
pISSN - 0004-8666
DOI - 10.1111/ajo.13326
Subject(s) - medicine , pregnancy , caesarean section , obstetrics , maternity care , cohort , pediatrics , genetics , biology
Background In Australia, it is estimated that 9.5% of women of childbearing age have a disability; however, little is known about their perinatal outcomes. Disability status is not routinely recorded in perinatal datasets. Aims To compare the outcomes of women with a disability who received pregnancy care through a specialised disability clinic at the Royal Women’s Hospital (the Women’s) in Melbourne, Australia with hospital‐wide perinatal outcome data. Materials and Methods Routinely collected perinatal data for women who received pregnancy care from the ‘Women with Individual Needs’ (WIN) clinic from 2014‐2018 ( N = 111) were analysed and then compared with routinely collected electronic hospital data obtained from all women who had given birth at the Women’s in 2017 and 2018 ( N = 15 024). Results Women who attended the WIN clinic were more likely to have a caesarean section birth (52% vs 32%; P < 0.001) and give birth preterm (17% vs 4%; P < 0.001) than those in the hospital‐wide cohort. Their infants were more likely to be low birthweight (20% vs 9%; P < 0.001), require resuscitation (35% vs 11%; P < 0.001), be admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Special Care Unit (29% vs 13%; P < 0.001) and receive formula in hospital (54% vs 28%; P < 0.001) compared to infants in the other group. Conclusions Routine maternity data collection should include identification of women with a disability to enable appropriate support and to allow further exploration of potential poorer outcomes on a larger sample, to help identify factors amenable to interventions that may improve outcomes.