Everyone working in neonatal care in developed countries is aware of the increasing workload, even as birth rates decline. This suggests, among other possibilities, that the delivery of preterm babies may be increasing, which might in turn signify a plausible change in obstetric practices. However these changes are difficult to quantify if, as in England, information on gestation is not routinely collected on every birth. Craig et al are therefore to be congratulated on their study of more than one million births, over 20 years, in New Zealand. They are able to inform us with considerable precision about the changing patterns of preterm births: increased rates in the 20 to 28 week (more than 80%), and 33 to 36 week groups (nearly 40%), but strangely little change in the 29 to 32 week group. At least as interesting are their data demonstrating the near disappearance of the previous gradient for . . . [Full text of this article]

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Socioeconomic status and preterm birth: New Zealand trends, 1980 to 1999

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