Overview
This project aims to reduce preterm and early term birth by 20% among participating Victorian maternity services by June 2026.
This work is part of a broader National Preterm Birth Prevention Collaborative with:
- The Australian Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance
- The Institute of Healthcare Improvement
- Women’s Healthcare Australasia.
We are focused on:
- the importance of continuing a pregnancy to 39 weeks gestation when medically appropriate
- identifying ways to ensure everyone involved in planning a birth has access to information and support for shared decision making.
Background
Each year in Australia, one in 12 pregnancies end too early and more than 26,000 babies are born too soon. Preterm birth is the leading cause of death and disability in children up to 5 years of age in developed countries and is a major contributor to the global burden of disease.
Solution design
Phase 2 of the National Preterm Birth Prevention Collaborative will build on learnings from the ‘Every Week Counts’ Collaborative (2022-2024). It brings together new and existing services from Phase 1, across Australia to implement and spread the evidence-based strategies endorsed by the Alliance.
There are 3 main pillars to this work:
- Preterm Birth
- Early Term Birth
- a First Nations focus.
The program “Every Week Counts Collaborative II” will commence Feb 2025 to June 2026, with requirement to focus on:
- further embedding effective proven prevention strategies into clinical practice
- optimising the time of birth by avoidance of unnecessary delivery before about 39 weeks’ gestation unless there is medical or obstetric justification
- measurements of the length of the cervix at mid-pregnancy ultrasound scans
- prescription of vaginal progesterone for short cervix in mid-pregnancy or a prior history of spontaneous preterm birth
- insertion of surgical cervical cerclage in women already taking progesterone and in whom the cervix continues to shorten
- avoidance of cigarette smoking and vaping during pregnancy
- promotion of continuity of care .
How to get involved
For more information about the project, please email maternitynewborn@safercare.vic.gov.au.
Project milestones
| Activity | Date |
|---|---|
| National Collaborative II Learning Session | 15-16 May 2025 |
| Action Period 1 | 5 June - 6 August 2025 |
| Learning Session 2 | 28-29 August 2025 |
| Action Period 2 | 18 September – 8 December 2025 |
| Learning Session 3 | 5 March 2026 |
| Action Period 3 | 12 March – 18 May 2026 |
| Showcase | 28 May 2026 |
More information
Priority area
This project supports our broader effort to reduce avoidable harm and unnecessary variation in healthcare.