Figure 1

Flow chart for this cross-sectional study. There were 269 singleton deliveries during the study period between the 27^th of June and the 27^th of August 2009. Seventy-seven placentas were not included for reasons including declined consent (8), discharge home prior to consent (16) or discarding of placentas post delivery (37) and other reasons (16). A total of 192 placentas were included in this study, representing 71% of the entire cohort of deliveries. There were no statistically significant differences when comparing women included with those excluded from the study. A perinatal pathologist, blinded to outcome, gestation and ethnicity, reviewed over 90% of the placentas. Nine percent were examined for clinical reasons in the Department of Anatomical Pathology, Royal Darwin Hospital.