Queensland

8.9 % of babies in Queensland were born preterm (< 37 weeks) in 2020/2021. Tragically, preterm birth was the reason for almost 9 out of 10 babies who died around the time they were born. We know that pregnant people who identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander have a much higher risk of having their baby born too early (14%). We also have confirmation now that social disadvantage makes it much more likely to give birth early in Queensland compared to living in an area with easy access to housing, employment and healthcare.

Having developed a dashboard in Queensland makes it easier for us to track early term births across the state now too which is great. We are proud to say that since introduction of our work, we have been able to significantly lower the numbers of babies born between 37 and 39 weeks gestation who didn’t have a good reason to be born early. Less than 1 in 3 babies are born in Queensland now at early term. This is certainly a good news story – but there is still so much more work to be done to improve outcomes for mothers, babies and families in our state.

Unique challenges to QLD include the large distances to cover in our state when caring for pregnant women and their families. Did you know that Queensland covers over one fifth of the Australian continent? If you consider, for example, the 1,700 km between Cairns in the North and Brisbane in the South – this would equate to a European maternity service which is based in London in the UK and provides care to Stockholm in Sweden, Dubrovnik in Croatia or Lisbon in Portugal! We also have only one big tertiary maternity service in the North, Townsville, and transfers of pregnant women and newborn babies can be very challenging – particularly when labour/birth occurs very early and is imminent.

One highlight of our work in Round 1 on the Every Week Counts National Collaborative was certainly our educational roadshow across Queensland. Our statewide program ensured that each Hospital and Health Service (HHS) was included in our early birth prevention work.

We have been able to design a statewide dashboard which makes it easy now for each hospital to access its own data. This is incredibly powerful as it allows maternity services to use their own information when improving patients’ safety, quality and care. We also designed an e-learning module on iLearn which is available to all Queensland Health employees online and will help us to sustain the gains of Round 1.

Another highlight for our team was the opportunity to present at the 2024 International Forum on Quality & Safety in Healthcare in Brisbane. The Queensland methodology used in Round 1 – to include every single HHS in our work – was unique. We are very grateful that this has also been acknowledged outside Australia.

Moving forward, we will continue the support for hospitals included in Round 1, focus on preterm preeclampsia screening and highlight the importance of “Care on Country” to provide holistic maternity care to First Nations peoples in Queensland – locally, in their communities. We are privileged to support Dr Cecelia O’Brien and her outreach program in Far North Queensland. You can read up on this outstanding program in more detail in a separate article of this year’s edition of this magazine. The “Care on Country” program provides culturally safe maternity care to Indigenous communities and screens for preterm preeclampsia and risk factors of preterm birth early in pregnancy. Pregnant women and their families, community members and healthcare providers will all have access to education and prevention strategies to reduce the risk of early birth and preterm preeclampsia in Round 2 of the Queensland program.

A/Prof Christoph Lehner – Clinical Lead
Prof David Ellwood, A/Prof David Watson – Co-Leads
Dr Cecelia O’Brien – Women’s Health Circle
Michael Rice – Director Patient Safety & Quality, Clinical Excellence Queensland
Deyna Hopkinson – Clinical Midwife Consultant, Clinical Excellence Queensland
Colette McIntyre – Improvement Advisor, Clinical Excellence Queensland
Emma Shipton – Midwifery Educator, Clinical Excellence Queensland
Stephanie Grant – Project Support Officer, Clinical Excellence Queensland