Upcoming Webinar: Twelve Years of Perinatal Data — What’s Changing in Ontario?

Join us for a fascinating webinar exploring how pregnancy, birth, and newborn outcomes have evolved across Ontario over the past twelve years — and what those changes mean for clinical practice, health system planning, research, and policy today.

Drawing on data from more than 140,000 births each year, this session highlights key insights from A Decade and Beyond: Perinatal Health in Ontario (2012–2024) — the most comprehensive provincial overview of maternal, pregnancy, birth, and newborn outcomes produced by BORN.

Over the past decade, Ontario’s perinatal landscape has evolved in meaningful and complex ways. Shifting demographics, changing clinical practices, emerging public health challenges, and broader system transformation have all shaped the experiences of pregnancy, birth, and newborn care across the province.

What the Data Reveals

The findings tell a compelling story of change.

Births to individuals aged 35 and older continue to rise. Mental health concerns documented during pregnancy have nearly doubled. Early exclusive breastfeeding rates have declined. Reported cannabis use during pregnancy has tripled since legalization. At the same time, there have been encouraging gains — including improved access to early prenatal care, better newborn temperature management at NICU admission, expanded midwifery involvement in births, increased use of assisted reproductive technologies, and strong early uptake of universal infant RSV prevention at birth.

One trend demanding particular attention is the steady rise in Caesarean section rates, affecting both first-time and repeat parents. Understanding these patterns is essential to ensuring that birthing options remain safe, evidence-informed, and person-centred.

Together, these shifts reflect changes not only in who is giving birth in Ontario, but also in the systems — both within and beyond traditional healthcare — that support families. They prompt important questions: Are we meeting the needs of today’s pregnant individuals and families? Where are the gaps? And how can we respond thoughtfully and equitably?

What You’ll Learn

Participants will:

• Explore key trends in perinatal health in Ontario from 2012 to 2024, including maternal risk factors, labour and birth practices, and newborn outcomes.

• Examine emerging system challenges and opportunities related to access to care, equity, and geographic and population-level variation.

• Apply report insights to quality improvement initiatives, policy development, research planning, and evidence-informed clinical practice within maternal-child health systems.

The session will also address equity considerations, data limitations, and opportunities for system planning and future research.

About the Speaker

Alysha Dingwall-Harvey is a Scientific Manager and research operations leader with more than 20 years of experience spanning clinical research, health systems, project management, and large-scale program delivery. As Scientific Manager at BORN, she leads province-wide, data-driven initiatives focused on improving maternal, newborn, and child health outcomes.

Prior to joining BORN, Alysha served as Clinical Research Program Manager at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, overseeing obstetrics and maternal-newborn clinical trials and epidemiological research from start-up through close-out. She also managed randomized controlled trials at the University of Ottawa and the CHEO Research Institute, focusing on the developmental origins of health and disease and early childhood interventions. Her career also includes project and operations leadership in the technology sector, bringing a systems-thinking lens to complex health initiatives.

Alysha is known for bridging science, operations, and strategy to deliver measurable population health impact.

A Call to Action

This report — and this webinar — are more than a presentation of data. They are a call to action.

Whether you are a clinician, policymaker, researcher, or advocate, these insights are tools to spark curiosity, strengthen quality improvement, inform planning and innovation, and champion equitable, high-quality care. The data invites conversation. It challenges assumptions. It highlights progress while illuminating areas that require attention.

Join us to explore what twelve years of provincial data can teach us — and how we can use it to shape the future of perinatal care in Ontario.