Our Current Work
About
This nation-wide initiative aims to improve health outcomes for women and babies by safely reducing preterm and early term birth by 20% within participating maternity services across Australia. The Every Week Counts Collaborative is being jointly led by the Australian Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance (the Alliance) and Women’s Healthcare Australasia (WHA), in partnership with jurisdiction partners in each State and Territory that is being funded by the Commonwealth Government. Round 2 of the Every Week Counts Collaborative will build on learning from Round 1, which was a national quality improvement initiative in 2022-2024.
Among the more than 50 maternity services that participated in Round 1, there were remarkable achievements towards improving outcomes for women, newborns and their families. Collectively, services reduced rates of birth before 39 completed weeks of gestation by more than 10%. Feedback from participating teams shows that they greatly valued not only the support to make local changes, but the opportunity to learn about how to undertake quality improvement in healthcare, and to share their learnings with peers working on the same challenges at the same time nationally.
Our story so far...
This nation-wide initiative aims to improve health outcomes for women and babies by safely reducing preterm and early term birth by 20% within participating maternity services across Australia. The Every Week Counts Collaborative is being jointly led by the Australian Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance (the Alliance) and Women’s Healthcare Australasia (WHA), in partnership with jurisdiction partners in each State and Territory that is being funded by the Commonwealth Government.
The content and resources of the Program has been tailored to suit women and families and clinicians. Please follow the links below to find what is relevant to you.
The Pillars
First Nations Co-Design
Partnering with First Nations communities to provide culturally safe preterm birth prevention care.
Early Term Birth
Safely decreasing early term birth by reducing early term caesarean section and induction of labour.
Pre-Term Birth
Enhance early identification of risk factors for preterm birth and commencement of early preventative care.
First Nations Co-Design
Partnering with First Nations communities to provide culturally safe preterm birth prevention care.
Early Term Birth
Safely decreasing early term birth by reducing early term caesarean section and induction of labour.
Pre-Term Birth
Enhance early identification of risk factors for preterm birth and commencement of early preventative care.
The Breakthrough Collaborative Approach
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.
