The NSW Perinatal Data Collection is managed by NSW Health. It is a population-based surveillance system covering all births in NSW public and private hospitals, as well as homebirths. The information collected in the PDC is about pregnancy care, services and outcomes. This includes demographic, medical and obstetric information about the mother; and information on the labour, delivery and condition of the infant.

The PDC encompasses all live births, and stillbirths of at least 20 weeks gestation or at least 400 grams birth weight. For every birth in NSW the attending midwife or medical practitioner completes a form (or its electronic equivalent) giving demographic, medical and obstetric information on the mother, and information on the labour, delivery and condition of the infant.

While the PDC has operated continuously since 1990, personal identifiers were only included in the data collection after 1992, when it became a statutory data collection under the NSW Public Health Act 1991. There was also a revision to the PDC form in 1993, which was implemented gradually. Consequently, personal identifiers and a number of other fields are available for approximately half of the 1993 records. For these reasons it is recommended that record linkage studies be carried out using data collected from 1994.

To monitor patterns of obstetric and neonatal practice in the State and to provide statistical information on specific topics within these fields to assist with the planning of Department of Health services. It is also intended to be a source of information for research in obstetric and neonatal care and to be used in the education of students of midwifery and medicine.

NSW state data

The Perinatal Data Collection (PDC) is a statutory data collection under the NSW Public Health Act 2010.