Every Week Counts: The Australian Preterm and Early Term Birth Prevention Program
Each year in Australia more than 26,000 babies are born early. Most will go on to be healthy, but others may not be so fortunate. Preterm birth is the leading cause of death in young children and one of the major causes of lifelong disability.
The purpose of the Program
The Every Week Counts National Preterm and Early Term Birth Prevention Program continues to be funded by the Commonwealth Government as an ongoing partnership between the Australian Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance (the Alliance), Women’s Healthcare Australasia (WHA), the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and jurisdiction partners in each State and Territory.
This historic nation-wide initiative aims to improve health outcomes for women and babies by continuing efforts to safely reduce preterm and early term birth by 20% among participating maternity services across Australia.
In 2025-26, we will build on learning from the Every Week Counts Collaborative in 2022-2024, providing ongoing support in a more flexible approach for services who participated in Round 1, and for new teams.
Maternity Hospitals working together to prevent preterm and early term birth.
The Australian Preterm and Early Term Birth Prevention Program currently oversees development across the following activities:
The Australian Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance and Women’s Healthcare Australasia have already lowered the rate of Preterm Birth by 6.5% and the rate of Early Term Birth by 10%.
Learn more about the organisations partnering with The Program:
Partnering Organisations
The Every Week Counts Australian Preterm and Early Term Birth Prevention Program is a partnership with clinical leadership from the Australian Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance, quality improvement and administration leadership from Women’s Healthcare Australasia and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), which is being funded by the Commonwealth Government through the Women’s Healthcare Australasia.
Partner organisations include Menzies School of Health Research, Clinical Excellence Queensland, Clinical Excellence Commission, Safer Care Victoria, SA Health, King Edward Memorial Hospital, Women’s and Babies Research, Every Week Counts, Centre of Research Excellence in Stillbirth, and the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand.
