14/07/2026
✨What can Birth Education change?✨
Australia’s caesarean rate continues to rise.
The latest national AIHW data shows that 41% of Australian mothers gave birth by caesarean in 2023, compared with 29% in 2004.
**IMPORTANT***
Australia’s caesarean rate has risen substantially over the past two decades, without a corresponding improvement in national perinatal mortality rates.
The World Health Organisation has historically identified a population caesarean rate of around 10–15% as ideal.
So what does this mean?
Well, another way to look at this is what can we do differently. For example:
🍃Against this national picture, results collected at Bunbury Hospital are worth considering.
Over a one-year period, birth outcomes for parents who attended the Hypnobirthing Australia Positive Birth Program were compared with those who did not attend.
The attending group experienced:
👉52% less emergency caesareans
👉22% more spontaneous births
These findings do not mean Hypnobirthing guarantees a vaginal birth, or that caesareans are failures. Caesarean birth can be necessary, positive and lifesaving.
What they do suggest is that quality birth education and preparation may make a meaningful difference.
The Hypnobirthing Australia course gives parents knowledge of birth physiology, practical tools to reduce fear and increase confidence, help to understand their options, support in communicating with their caregivers and tools to remain calm and involved—even when birth takes an unexpected path.
Because a positive birth is not defined by one particular outcome.
It is about feeling informed, supported, respected and part of the decisions surrounding your birth.
📑Research notes: The Bunbury findings were collected within one hospital over a one-year period and were not a randomised national study. The reported percentages represent differences between attendees and non-attendees.
