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The Australian Baby Bonus Maternity Payment and Birth Characteristics in Western Australia

BACKGROUND: The Australian baby bonus maternity payment introduced in 2004 has been reported to have successfully increased fertility rates in Australia. We aimed to investigate the influence of the baby bonus on maternal demographics and birth characteristics in Western Australia (WA). METHODS AND...

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Autores principales: Einarsdóttir, Kristjana, Langridge, Amanda, Hammond, Geoffrey, Gunnell, Anthony S., Haggar, Fatima A., Stanley, Fiona J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3492246/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23145010
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048885
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author Einarsdóttir, Kristjana
Langridge, Amanda
Hammond, Geoffrey
Gunnell, Anthony S.
Haggar, Fatima A.
Stanley, Fiona J.
author_facet Einarsdóttir, Kristjana
Langridge, Amanda
Hammond, Geoffrey
Gunnell, Anthony S.
Haggar, Fatima A.
Stanley, Fiona J.
author_sort Einarsdóttir, Kristjana
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The Australian baby bonus maternity payment introduced in 2004 has been reported to have successfully increased fertility rates in Australia. We aimed to investigate the influence of the baby bonus on maternal demographics and birth characteristics in Western Australia (WA). METHODS AND FINDINGS: This study included 200,659 birth admissions from WA during 2001–2008, identified from administrative birth and hospital data-systems held by the WA Department of Health. We estimated average quarterly birth rates after the baby bonus introduction and compared them with expected rates had the policy not occurred. Rate and percentage differences (including 95% confidence intervals) were estimated separately by maternal demographics and birth characteristics. WA birth rates increased by 12.8% following the baby bonus implementation with the greatest increase being in mothers aged 20–24 years (26.3%, 95%CI = 22.0,30.6), mothers having their third (1.6%, 95%CI = 0.9,2.4) or fourth child (2.2%, 95%CI = 2.1,2.4), mothers living in outer regional and remote areas (32.4%, 95%CI = 30.2,34.6), mothers giving birth as public patients (1.5%, 95%CI = 1.3,1.8), and mothers giving birth in public hospitals (3.5%, 95%CI = 2.6,4.5). Interestingly, births to private patients (−4.3%, 95%CI = −4.8,−3.7) and births in private hospitals (−6.3%, 95%CI = −6.8,−5.8) decreased following the policy implementation. CONCLUSIONS: The introduction of the baby bonus maternity payment may have served as an incentive for women in their early twenties and mothers having their third or fourth child and may have contributed to the ongoing pressure and staff shortages in Australian public hospitals, particularly those in outer regional and remote areas.
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spelling pubmed-34922462012-11-09 The Australian Baby Bonus Maternity Payment and Birth Characteristics in Western Australia Einarsdóttir, Kristjana Langridge, Amanda Hammond, Geoffrey Gunnell, Anthony S. Haggar, Fatima A. Stanley, Fiona J. PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: The Australian baby bonus maternity payment introduced in 2004 has been reported to have successfully increased fertility rates in Australia. We aimed to investigate the influence of the baby bonus on maternal demographics and birth characteristics in Western Australia (WA). METHODS AND FINDINGS: This study included 200,659 birth admissions from WA during 2001–2008, identified from administrative birth and hospital data-systems held by the WA Department of Health. We estimated average quarterly birth rates after the baby bonus introduction and compared them with expected rates had the policy not occurred. Rate and percentage differences (including 95% confidence intervals) were estimated separately by maternal demographics and birth characteristics. WA birth rates increased by 12.8% following the baby bonus implementation with the greatest increase being in mothers aged 20–24 years (26.3%, 95%CI = 22.0,30.6), mothers having their third (1.6%, 95%CI = 0.9,2.4) or fourth child (2.2%, 95%CI = 2.1,2.4), mothers living in outer regional and remote areas (32.4%, 95%CI = 30.2,34.6), mothers giving birth as public patients (1.5%, 95%CI = 1.3,1.8), and mothers giving birth in public hospitals (3.5%, 95%CI = 2.6,4.5). Interestingly, births to private patients (−4.3%, 95%CI = −4.8,−3.7) and births in private hospitals (−6.3%, 95%CI = −6.8,−5.8) decreased following the policy implementation. CONCLUSIONS: The introduction of the baby bonus maternity payment may have served as an incentive for women in their early twenties and mothers having their third or fourth child and may have contributed to the ongoing pressure and staff shortages in Australian public hospitals, particularly those in outer regional and remote areas. Public Library of Science 2012-11-07 /pmc/articles/PMC3492246/ /pubmed/23145010 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048885 Text en © 2012 Einarsdóttir et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Einarsdóttir, Kristjana
Langridge, Amanda
Hammond, Geoffrey
Gunnell, Anthony S.
Haggar, Fatima A.
Stanley, Fiona J.
The Australian Baby Bonus Maternity Payment and Birth Characteristics in Western Australia
title The Australian Baby Bonus Maternity Payment and Birth Characteristics in Western Australia
title_full The Australian Baby Bonus Maternity Payment and Birth Characteristics in Western Australia
title_fullStr The Australian Baby Bonus Maternity Payment and Birth Characteristics in Western Australia
title_full_unstemmed The Australian Baby Bonus Maternity Payment and Birth Characteristics in Western Australia
title_short The Australian Baby Bonus Maternity Payment and Birth Characteristics in Western Australia
title_sort australian baby bonus maternity payment and birth characteristics in western australia
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3492246/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23145010
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048885
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