Pregnant women with pre-existing diabetes who deliver in rural hospitals have double the rate of stillbirth than those birthing in metropolitan hospitals, Australian research has found.

A study covering all singleton births to women with type 1 or type 2 diabetes (excluding GDM) in Victoria over a 10-year period shows the rate of stillbirth was 2.3% in rural hospitals compared with 1.1% for urban areas.

Researchers say their retrospective, population-based review covering nearly 4000 deliveries between 2006 and 2015 includes the largest rural cohort of women with diabetes studied in Australia.

The team, from the Mercy Hospital for Women and University of Melbourne, noted that although increased maternal and neonatal death rates are known to be higher among rural women, the study is the first to reflect stillbirth rates among women who had diabetes prior to pregnancy in Victoria.