BACKGROUND Open neural tube defects are among the most common malformations of the fetus. Secondary prevention by early diagnosis during pregnancy and abortion of affected fetuses result in a marked reduction of NTD incidence at birth. The dramatic effect of folic acid for primary prevention of these defects led to recommendations for folic acid supplementation in women of reproductive age. O...

This study was designed to determine the reasons for the variability of the incidence of congenital heart disease (CHD), estimate its true value and provide data about the incidence of specific major forms of CHD. The incidence of CHD in different studies varies from about 4/1,000 to 50/1,000 live births. The relative frequency of different major forms of CHD also differs greatly from study to ...

OBJECTIVES Studies on factors affecting neonatal mortality have rarely considered the impact of place of delivery on neonatal mortality. This study provides epidemiological information regarding the impact of place of delivery on neonatal deaths. METHODS We analyzed data from the Rufiji Health and Demographic Surveillance System (RHDSS) in Tanzania. A total of 5,124 live births and 166 neonat...

BACKGROUND The nutrition and epidemiologic transition has been associated with an increasing incidence of preterm birth in developing countries, but data from large observational studies in China have been limited. Our study was to describe the trends and factors associated with the incidence of preterm birth and infant mortality due to prematurity in Hubei Province, China. METHODS We conduct...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) affects women of reproductive age, so there are concerns about its effects on fertility. We investigated the success of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in patients with IBD compared with the general (non-IBD) IVF population. METHODS We conducted a matched retrospective cohort study of female patients with IBD who underwent IVF from 1998 through ...

For 1980 Singapore was found to have overall a more favourable birthweight distribution than England and Wales. The proportion of very low birthweight babies (less than 1500 g) and heavy babies (3500 g and over) was 0.4% and 18.5% in Singapore and 0.7% and 34.9% in England and Wales for live births, and 0.6% and 18.5% against 0.9% and 34.7% for total births. However, for low birthweight (less t...

ABSTRACT Objective: to identify the association of congenital anomalies in live births with obstetric-neonatal and sociodemographic profile. Methods: an ecological study, conducted 2019, 251,444 births, identified through database Live Birth Information System Minas Gerais Health Secretariat. Descriptive statistics binary logistic regression were adopted for analysis. Results: 1,865 cases (0.7%...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to assess the main factors related to maternal mortality reduction in large time series available in Chile in context of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). METHODS Time series of maternal mortality ratio (MMR) from official data (National Institute of Statistics, 1957-2007) along with parallel time series of education years, income pe...

Antenatal care (ANC) is one of the key interventions of the Every Newborn action plan to improve newborn health and prevent stillbirths by 2035. However, little is known about its relationship with neonatal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa since the 1990s. We use data from 54 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) from 27 countries to make comparisons of neonatal mortality by ANC attendance. Each c...

OBJECTIVE To examine the association between nondefect adverse birth outcomes and in utero exposure to zidovudine (ZDV)-containing regimens versus non-ZDV antiretroviral (ARV) regimens. DESIGN Analysis of prospectively-collected data. SETTING Global. POPULATION HIV-infected pregnant women prenatally exposed to antiretrovirals. METHODS Estimation of prevalence of and risk for nondefect a...