A HIGHER proportion of women in Hunter New England are smoking during pregnancy and almost half are considered overweight or obese, a new report shows.
The latest NSWMothers and Babies report found 48.8 per cent of women living in the Hunter New England Health Local Health District in 2018 had a "maternal" body mass index within the healthy weight range. But 47.7 per cent were considered overweight or obese, and 3.5 per cent were "underweight". Across NSW, 56.6 per cent of mothers were in the healthy weight range.
The percentage of mothers that were overweight or obese varied from 24.2 per cent in the Northern Sydney Local Health District to 52.6 per cent in the Far West Local Health District.
In NSW, 9.1 per cent of mothers smoked "at all" during pregnancy. In Hunter New England,16.1 per cent of mothers reported smoking at some time in pregnancy - up from 14.5 per cent in 2017.
"Operative and instrumental births" were more common among privately insured mothers, with the rate of "normal vaginal births" decreasing from 44.7 per cent in 2014 to 42.5 per cent in 2018 and the caesarean rate increasing from 41.6 per cent to 43.9 per cent. Among publicly insured mothers, the rate of normal vaginal birth decreased from 62.4 per cent to 59 per cent, and the caesarean rate increased from 27.3 per cent to 29.8 percent. Of the 10,407 births in Hunter New England Health District in 2018, 56.3 per cent were normal vaginal births, 21.7 per cent were elective caesarians, and 10 per cent were emergency caesarians.
At Newcastle Private Hospital in 2018, 36.7 per cent of births were elective caesarians, up from 33 per cent in 2017, while normal vaginal births dropped from 42 per cent in 2017 to 40 per cent.
