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The following analyses are based on table 5.3.2. The data on Indigenous babiesrelate to babies born to Indigenous mothers only, as the data collection excludesbabies born to non-Indigenous mothers and Indigenous fathers:• During 2002–2004, there was a total of 763 773 live births in Australia, ofwhich 94.3 per cent were babies born to non-Indigenous mothers and3.5 per cent were babies born to Indigenous mothers 6 .• The mean birthweight of live births to Indigenous mothers was 3161 g,compared with 3380 g for babies born to non-Indigenous mothers — adifference of 219 g (non-Indigenous births were 6.9 per cent heavier).• The proportion of live births to Indigenous mothers with low birthweight wasmore than twice that of non-Indigenous mothers (13.0 per cent compared with6.1 per cent). Further, the proportion of live births to Indigenous mothers withvery low and extremely low birthweights (2.4 and 1.1 per cent respectively) washigher than for babies born to non-Indigenous mothers (1.0 and 0.4 per cent).• Of all live births, 6.4 per cent had low birthweight compared with 77.0 per centof all fetal deaths.• 1.1 per cent of babies born to Indigenous mothers, compared with 0.7 per cent ofbabies born to non-Indigenous mothers, were fetal deaths.• Of those fetuses that died, over half — for both Indigenous and non-Indigenousmothers — had extremely low birthweights.Across states and territories, there was little variation in the proportion of live birthswith low birthweight for babies born to non-Indigenous mothers (table 5A.3.1).Mean birthweights and proportions of low birthweight babies in 2002–2004 havenot changed in the period since 1998–2000 (except for some minor fluctuations)(tables 5A.3.1 to 5A.3.5). In general, comparisons of birthweights of babies toIndigenous mothers between states and territories and over time should beinterpreted with care.6 Proportions do not add to 100 per cent because births for Tasmania are included in the total livebirths but were not available by Indigenous status for Tasmania and so are not included in theIndigenous and non-Indigenous totals for Australia.5.24 OVERCOMINGINDIGENOUSDISADVANTAGE 2007