ABSTRACT
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.
