Insert table 2 about here
Conversely, the rate of neonatal admissions was lower in the CTG+STan arm, and the average neonatal admission costs for admitted babies were approximately half in the CTG+STan arm; AUD6,690 vs AUD13,294, which resulted in the equivalent of a cost saving of AUD2,444 for every mother-baby dyad in the cohort (Table 2). While the evidence of this difference was not statistically significant (given the large variability in costs, and the fact that the study was not powered to detect cost differences), the magnitude of the observed difference is remarkable. Most of the difference in cost appears to result from increased critical care costs for admitted neonates in the CTG alone arm. Interestingly, the seven neonates in the CTG+STan arm admitted to critical care had average total admission costs of about one third of the fourteen requiring critical care in the CTG alone arm (AUD30, 650 compared with AUD94, 805 per neonatal admission incorporating a critical care stay).