OBJECTIVES This report presents recent trends in the circumstances surrounding live births in the United States. Specifically, this report will examine the changes in the attendant and place of birth as well as changes in the day and month of birth. Trends in the use of four obstetric procedures (electronic fetal monitoring, ultrasound, induction of labor, and stimulation of labor) are examined...

Despite a remarkable increase in Asian births in the U.S., studies on their birth outcomes have been lacking. We investigated outcomes of births to Asian parents and biracial Asian/White parents in the U.S. From the U.S. birth data (1992-2012), we selected singleton births to Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Asian Indian, and Vietnamese. These births were divided into three groups; births t...

OBJECTIVE To test whether the relatively unpredictable nature of labour onset can be described by the Poisson distribution. DESIGN A descriptive retrospective study. SETTING From the Danish Birth Registry, we identified births from all seven obstetric clinics in the capital region of Denmark (n=211 290) between 2000 and the end of 2009. On each date, the number of births at each department ...

KEY FINDINGS The highest percentages of births occurred during the morning and midday hours. Births on Saturday and Sunday were more likely to occur in the late evening and early morning hours than births Monday through Friday. Compared with induced vaginal deliveries and noninduced vaginal deliveries, cesarean deliveries were the least likely to occur during the evening and early morning. Noni...

OBJECTIVE To compare perinatal mortality, stratified for risk level, in home births attended by a relative or traditional birth attendant without formal training with births attended by trained personnel in a dispensary or hospital. STUDY DESIGN A prospective community based study in five villages in Northwestern Tanzania during 1990, involving 222 women delivering at home and 199 in a dispen...

OBJECTIVE To identify the major causes of perinatal mortality in South Africa. SETTING Seventy-three state hospitals throughout South Africa representing metropolitan areas, cities and towns and rural areas. METHOD Users of the Perinatal Problem Identification Programme (PPIP) amalgamated their data to provide descriptive information on the causes of perinatal death and the avoidable factor...

OBJECTIVE To investigate regional variation in the registration of preterm births <24 weeks of gestation and the impact on infant death rates for English Primary Care Trusts (PCTs). DESIGN Cohort study. SETTING England. PARTICIPANTS All registered births (1 January 2005-31 December 2008) by gestational age and PCT (147 trusts) linked to infant deaths (up to 1 year of life). Late-fetal dea...

OBJECTIVE To explore whether the increased risk of preterm birth following treatment for cervical disease is limited to the first birth following colposcopy. DESIGN Nested case-control study. SETTING Twelve NHS hospitals in England. POPULATION All nonmultiple births from women selected as cases or controls from a cohort of women with both colposcopy and a hospital birth. Cases had a prete...

INTRODUCTION Over the last decade, planned home births in the United States (US) have increased, and have been associated with increased neonatal mortality and other morbidities. In a previous study we reported that neonatal mortality is increased in planned home births but we did not perform an analysis for the presence of professional certification status. PURPOSE The objective of this stud...