More pregnant women in Australia will be routinely screened for pre-eclampsia, a life-threatening condition that currently forces babies to be delivered early, thanks to a new WA-led program.
Australia’s world first preterm birth prevention program, which was started in WA, has developed a powerful screening test that identifies pregnant women at risk and prevents the condition developing with daily low-dose aspirin.
With $6.8 million of Federal Government funding announced today/sat, the new early pregnancy pre-eclampsia screening program will be rolled out to at least 30 more maternity hospitals across the country.
Professor John Newnham, chair of the WA-led Australian Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance, said the funding will also be used to continue the work of the national program for the next two years.
“This program overall is very much a prevention arm of the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme). Early term birth is the antecedent of childhood learning and behavioural problems at school age,” he said.
“Preventing preterm birth and preterm pre-eclampsia, we’re in the business of preventing childhood disability and problems before birth.”
Professor Newnham said that since 2018, the rate of preterm birth (before 37 weeks’ gestation) has decreased from 8.7 per cent to 8.2 per cent equating to around 1500 fewer preterm births each year.
He said the rate of early term births – during the two-week period between 37 and 39 weeks – has been lowered from 32 per cent to 27 per cent – preventing more than 4000 early term births a year – and was still falling.
Pre-eclampsia is characterised by high blood pressure and protein in the urine and is dangerous for mother and baby. The only treatment is for doctors to deliver the baby.
Pre-eclampsia accounts for one in seven preterm births, which are associated with serious lifelong health and developmental complications, including cerebral palsy, deafness, blindness, and learning and behavioural problems.
The new screening and treatment regimen can potentially prevent up to 90 per cent of early preterm births associated with pre-eclampsia.
The screening would be done between 11 and 14 weeks gestation when women often have a first trimester ultrasound.
It consists of taking a medical history of the pregnant woman and her family, taking her blood pressure in a specific way, doing a blood test for placental central growth factor and measuring the blood flow through the uterine artery.
Professor Newnham said if a woman was going to develop pre-eclampsia, blood flow to the placenta would already be compromised.
“This screening will pick up 90 per cent of pre-eclampsia before 32 weeks. It’s a very powerful test,” he said. “Then you prescribe low dose aspirin, one tablet each evening from then until 36 weeks, which is very safe and very effective.
“It will be highly cost effective. A little preterm baby in the nursery costs $300,000. And lifetime disability is exceedingly expensive.”
Busselton Health Campus was one of nine sites across Australia which took part in a pilot trial of the new screening program.
Dr Barb Vernon, from partner organisation Women’s Healthcare Australasia, said strengthening partnerships with indigenous healthcare workers and organisations will remain a key priority over the next two years.
“Strong evidence shows rates of preterm birth among First Nations women can be substantially reduced when Aboriginal women receive culturally safe continuity of care from Aboriginal health professionals working within maternity teams,” she said.
A 2025 study published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Women’s Health found Australia has become the first nation in the world to strategically reduce rates of harmful early birth.
Grace Ng and George Croucamp had their daughter Audrey nine months ago at 36 weeks gestation. The Bayswater couple went to King Edward Memorial Hospital after Ms Ng noticed an absence of foetal movement.
Along with concerns about Ms Ng’s blood test results, they were advised to let doctors deliver Audrey that same day.
“It was difficult to weigh up the potential risks with the benefits of having her induced early,” Ms Ng said.
Audrey spent a week in the neonatal intensive care unit because she had jaundice.
Ms Ng said Audrey initially struggled with sleeping, feeding and tummy upsets but they noticed a significant improvement once she reached her due date.
The first-time parents said they were often given contradictory advice regarding Audrey’s development.
“There was quite a lot of stress around some of the appointments where we were told she wasn’t gaining enough weight because they were measuring her against had she been full term versus her actual adjusted age,” Ms Ng said.
Aware of how preterm birth could affect Audrey as she grows up, Ms Ng and Mr Croucamp said they keep a close eye on her development and support her as much as possible.
