The Perinatal Deaths in Australia 1993–2012 report, by the University of New South Wales and Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, revealed the ACT's high stillbirth rate was second only to Victoria in 2011-12, which had 9.4 deaths for every 1000 births.

But it showed the ACT figures were most likely "inflated", due to nearly 13 per cent of the babies delivered in the ACT being born to mothers from interstate.

The report said many of those interstate mothers may have had high-risk pregnancies that led to them being transferred from smaller regional New South Wales hospitals to have the birth at better equipped hospitals in Canberra.

The report showed of that while Canberra's hospitals successfully delivered 11,652 births in 2011-12, there were 132 perinatal deaths that year, with the ACT's overall perinatal death rate at 11.2 per 1000 live births, behind the Northern Territory at 11.3 and Victoria at 12.2.

Of the 132 perinatal deaths in ACT hospitals in 2011-12, 96 were stillborn and 36 were neonatal deaths – where the baby died within 28 days of being born.

Nationally, the report showed Australia was still one of the safest places worldwide to have a baby, but nearly one in 100 pregnancies at or beyond 20 weeks gestation ended with the death of a baby in 2011-12.

Report author, UNSW associate professor Georgina Chambers, said while the overall perinatal mortality rate had been fairly stable over the past 20 years, the stillbirth rate rose by 13 per cent while the neonatal death rate fell by 18 per cent.

Mortality rates varied across the country, with higher rates among indigenous Australians, those living in remote areas and the mothers' socioeconomic status, body-mass index and whether she smoked tobacco during pregnancy.

The extent of prematurity, being born as a twin or triplet, and whether the baby had a birth defect were also significant risk factors for stillbirth and neonatal death.