Objective: To study the epidemiology of births in urban China.
Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on neonates born in 2005 in the maternity departments of 72 urban hospitals from 22 provinces in China.
Results: A total of 45722 infants born between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2005 were enrolled. The male to female sex ratio was 1.13:1. Preterm births accounted for 8.1%. The incidence of very low birth weight infants was 0.7%. A total of 99.7% of mothers delivering at term had conceived naturally and 0.3% had experienced assisted reproduction. A total of 98.4% of mothers who delivered preterm had conceived naturally and 1.6% had experienced assisted reproduction. The proportion of vaginal deliveries was 50.8% compared to 49.2% delivered by cesarean sections. Many cesarean sections (38.1%) were due to social factors. Infants with an Apgar score≤7 at 1 minute accounted for 4.8%, and 1.6% of infants had an Apgar score≤7 at 5 minutes. Of all the infants included in the study, 7.14% were admitted to neonatal units for treatment. The death rate of all included infants was 0.74%.
Conclusions: The proportion of preterm births was higher in 2005 than in 2002-2003. The proportion of cesarean section deliveries was much higher in urban China than in most other Asian countries and America.