Report on Perinatal Statistics for 2001

This report presents information on pregnancy outcomes, together with descriptive social and biological characteristics of mothers giving birth and babies born in Ireland in 2001. In 2001, 58,261 births were notified to the National Perinatal Reporting System. The birth rate for 2001 is estimated at 15.1 per 1,000 population which represents a increase of 4.7 per cent since 1992. Over the decade 1992-2001, the Perinatal Mortality Rate has decreased by 10.4 per cent, the Early Neonatal Death Rate has fallen by 26.3 per cent, and the Stillbirth Rate has been reduced by 1.7 per cent. Delivery by Caesarean Section now accounts for 22 per cent of all births, which represents an 80.8 per cent increase on all births delivered by caesarean section in 1992. The average birthweight of babies born in 2001 is estimated at 3,477g. The Twinning Rate for 2001 is estimated at 15.3 per 1,000 maternities, as there were 878 twin births, 23 triplet births, 1 quadruplet birth and 1 quintuplet birth. In 2001, single mothers accounted for just over 30 per cent of all women giving birth. This represents a 82.7 per cent increase in the estimated rate of 16.5 per cent in 1992. The average age of single mothers in 2001 is 25 years. The trend in the breastfeeding rate continues to be upward at 39.1 per cent in 2001 compared to 33.9 per cent in 1992. There were 245 home births attended by independent domiciliary midwives in 2001 compared with 201 such births in 1992

Report on Perinatal Statistics for 2000

The report describes the fundamental social and biological characteristics of mothers and their babies, reports on pregnancy outcomes with particular reference to perinatal mortality and highlights important aspects of perinatal care. Information on just over 55,000 births was analysed for this report.

Report on Perinatal Statistics for 2002

This report presents information on pregnancy outcomes, together with descriptive social and biological characteristics of mothers giving birth and babies born in Ireland in 2002. In 2002, 60,865 births were notified to the National Perinatal Reporting System. The birth rate for 2002 is estimated at 15.5 per 1,000 population which represents a increase of 12.0 per cent since 1993. Over the decade 1993-2002, the Perinatal Mortality Rate has decreased by 3.4 per cent, the Early Neonatal Death Rate has fallen by 6.7 per cent, and the Stillbirth Rate has been reduced by 1.8 per cent. Delivery by Caesarean Section now accounts for 22 per cent of all births, which represents an 72.1 per cent increase on all births delivered by caesarean section in 1993. The average birthweight of babies born in 2002 is estimated at 3,474g. The Twinning Rate for 2002 is estimated at 14.4 per 1,000 maternities, as there were 864 twin births, 18 triplet births and 3 quadruplet births. In 2002, single mothers accounted for just over 30 per cent of all women giving birth. This represents a 65.4 per cent increase in the estimated rate of 18.1 per cent in 1993. The average age of single mothers in 2002 is 26 years. The trend in the breastfeeding rate continues to be upward at 41.1 per cent in 2002 compared to 33.9 per cent in 1993. There were 288 home births attended by independent domiciliary midwives in 2002 compared with 142 such births in 1993.

Perinatal health monitoring through a European lens: eight lessons from the Euro-Peristat report on 2015 births

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Antenatal Rubella Immunity in Ireland

The objective of the study was to identify those women attending for antenatal care who would have benefited from prepregnancy rubella vaccination. It was a population-based observational study of women who delivered a baby weighing ≥500 g in 2009 in the Republic of Ireland. The woman’s age, parity, nationality and rubella immunity status were analysed using data collected by the National Perinatal Reporting System. Of the 74,810 women delivered, the rubella status was known in 96.7% (n=72,333). Of these, 6.4%(n=4,665) women were not immune. Rubella seronegativity was 8.0%(n=2425) in primiparous women compared with 5.2%(n=2239) in multiparous women (p<0.001), 14.7%(n=10653) in women <25 years old compared with 5.0%(n=3083) in women ≥25 years old (p<0.001), and 11.4%(n=780) in women born outside the 27 European Union (EU27) countries compared with 5.9%(n=3886) in women born inside the EU27 countries (p<0.001). Based on our findings we recommend that to prevent Congenital Rubella Syndrome, the health services in Ireland should focus on women who are young, nulliparous and born outside the EU

Variations in rates of severe perineal tears and episiotomies in 20 European countries: a study based on routine national data in Euro-Peristat Project

Introduction: Rates of severe perineal tears and episiotomies are indicators of obstetrical quality of care, but their use for international comparisons is complicated by difficulties with accurate ascertainment of tears and uncertainties regarding the optimal rate of episiotomies. We compared rates of severe perineal tears and episiotomies in European countries and analysed the association between these two indicators. Material and methods: We used aggregate data from national routine statistics available in the Euro-Peristat project. We compared rates of severe (third- and fourth-degree) tears and episiotomies in 2010 by mode of vaginal delivery (n = 20 countries), and investigated time trends between 2004 and 2010 (n = 9 countries). Statistical associations were assessed with Spearman's ranked correlations (rho). Results: In 2010 in all vaginal deliveries, rates of severe tears ranged from 0.1% in Romania to 4.9% in Iceland, and rates of episiotomies from 3.7% in Denmark to 75.0% in Cyprus. A negative correlation between the rates of episiotomies and severe tears was observed in all deliveries (rho = −0.66; p = 0.001), instrumental deliveries (rho = −0.67; p = 0.002) and non-instrumental deliveries (rho = −0.72; p < 0.001). However there was no relation between time trends of these two indicators (rho = 0.43; p = 0.28). Conclusions: The large variations in severe tears and episiotomies and the negative association between these indicators in 2010 show the importance of improving the assessment and reporting of tears in each country, and evaluating the impact of low episiotomy rates on the perineum.SCOPUS: ar.jFLWINinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Variations in multiple birth rates and impact on perinatal outcomes in Europe

Objective: Infants from multiple pregnancies have higher rates of preterm birth, stillbirth and neonatal death and differences in multiple birth rates (MBR) exist between countries. We aimed to describe differences in MBR in Europe and to investigate the impact of these differences on adverse perinatal outcomes at a population level. Methods: We used national aggregate birth data on multiple pregnancies, maternal age, gestational age (GA), stillbirth and neonatal death collected in the Euro-Peristat project (29 countries in 2010, N = 5 074 643 births). We also used European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) data on assisted conception and single embryo transfer (SET). The impact of MBR on outcomes was studied using meta-analysis techniques with randomeffects models to derive pooled risk ratios (pRR) overall and for four groups of country defined by their MBR. We computed population attributable risks (PAR) for these groups. Results: In 2010, the average MBR was 16.8 per 1000 women giving birth, ranging from 9.1 (Romania) to 26.5 (Cyprus). Compared to singletons, multiples had a nine-fold increased risk (pRR 9.4, 95% Cl 9.1-9.8) of preterm birth (<37 weeks GA), an almost 12-fold increased risk (pRR 11.7, 95% CI 11.0-12.4) of very preterm birth (<32 weeks GA). Pooled RR were 2.4 (95% Cl1.5-3.6) for fetal mortality at or after 28 weeks GA and 7.0 (95% Cl 6.1-8.0) for neonatal mortality. PAR of neonatal death and very preterm birth were higher in countries with high MBR compared to low MBR (17.1% (95% CI 13.8-20.2) versus 9.8% (95% Cl 9.6-11.0) for neonatal death and 29.6% (96% CI 28.5-30.6) versus 17.5% (95% CI 15.7-18.3) for very preterm births, respectively). Conclusions: Wide variations in MBR and their impact on population outcomes imply that efforts by countries to reduce MBR could improve perinatal outcomes, enabling better long-term child health