Pregnancy-related hospital use.

OBJECTIVES This article describes provincial variations in women's hospital use during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period. DATA SOURCE The data were extracted from the Person-Oriented Information Data Base, maintained by Health Statistics Division at Statistics Canada. This data base is comprised of hospital admission data submitted by general and allied hospitals to provincial and territorial governments and is considered complete for each jurisdiction. Data were not available for the Yukon Territory. ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES A group of 57,627 women who gave birth during October and November 1993 was identified from hospital admission records using selected ICD-9 and CCP codes. These records were then linked to other hospital admissions that occurred in the six months before and the four months after childbirth. MAIN RESULTS Approximately 15% of women who gave birth in October and November 1993 were admitted to hospital at least once during the six months before childbirth. Only 4% were re-admitted during the four months after the birth.