OBSTETRICAL OUTCOMES OF ABORIGINAL PREGNANCIES AT A MAJOR URBAN HOSPITAL

While a number of previous papers have documented the poor general hea lth of Australia's Aboriginal population, relatively few have consider ed the health of Aborigines living in Australia's urban centres. In th is latter instance, Aborigines have access to conventional medical ser vices and they live in a physical environment that does not differ gre atly from that experienced by the lower-class white population. Of cou rse, racial, familial and economic differences may continue to influen ce differentially the perceived accessibility of services to Aborigine s and their non-Aboriginal neighbours. This paper compares the pregnan cy outcomes of Aboriginal women and non-Aboriginal women living in a m ajor urban centre in Australia. The data indicate that urban Aborigina l women have adverse pregnancy outcomes at one and a half to two times the rate experienced by the non-Aboriginal population. Much of the di fference can be attributed to lifestyle variations in the groups being compared.