Table 1.

Characteristics of participating health centres, women and early pregnancy care

Characteristic	NT Top End	NT Central Australia	Far West NSW	WA	North QLD	Total
No. of health centres	13	2	6	9	4	34
Governance models of health centres
Government funded/operated	7 (54%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	3 (33%)	4 (100%)	14 (41%)
Managed by local or regional Indigenous committee or board	6 (46%)	2 (100%)	6 (100%)	6 (67%)	0 (0%)	20 (59%)
Accreditation status
Accredited	6 (46%)	2 (100%)	0 (0%)	4 (44%)	1 (25%)	13 (38%)
Not accredited	7 (54%)	0 (0%)	6 (100%)	5 (56%)	3 (75%)	21 (62%)
Population sizes of communities served
≤ 500	4 (31%)	0 (0%)	1 (17%)	0 (0%)	1 (25%)	6 (18%)
501-999	4 (31%)	1 (50%)	3 (50%)	1 (11%)	2 (50%)	11 (32%)
≥1000	5 (38%)	1 (50%)	2 (33%)	8 (89%)	1 (25%)	17 (50%)
No. of women participating in maternal health audits	136	45	103	193	58	535
Median age of women (years)	23.7	24.8	25.8	26.2	26.4	25.3
Indigenous status
Indigenous	96%	100%	61%	93%	95%	89%*
Non-Indigenous	3%	0%	34%	6%	0%	9%*
Not stated	1%	0%	5%	1%	5%	2%
Mean estimated gestational age at the first antenatal visit (weeks)	14	15	20	15	15	16
Proportion of women with estimated gestational age at first antenatal visit < 12 weeks	49%	44%	35%	42%	34%	42%
Mean number of antenatal visits	9	10	5	6	7	7*
First antenatal assessments by:
Aboriginal health workers	9%	0%	2%	5%	5%	5%
Nurses	25%	2%	3%	17%	33%	17%*
Midwives	40%	82%	50%	25%	28%	39%*
Doctors	10%	16%	13%	51%	3%	25%*
Unknown	16%	0%	32%	2%	31%	14%*
Proportion of women with folic acid prescribed before 20 weeks	29%	49%	3%	33%	24%	27%*
Proportion of women with folic acid prescribed prior to conception	12%	7%	0%	8%	16%	8%
Proportion of women with iron prescribed	76%	73%	29%	63%	41%	58%*
Proportion of women with a general antenatal care plan present in the file	93%	98%	65%	82%	86%	83%

* P < 0.05 for comparisons between regions.