Births in Wales 2007: Data from the National Community Child Health Database

Statistics on Births in Wales 2007: data from the National Community Child Health Database include data for Wales for the calendar year 2007. The latest release updates the statistics previously released on 25 July 2007.

The National Community Child Health Database (NCCHD) is Wales' first national community child health database and consists of anonymised records for all children born, resident or treated in Wales and born after 1987. It brings together data from local Child Health System databases which are held by NHS Trusts and used by them to administer child immunisation and health surveillance programmes. The database is still in development and not all data items are complete and of good quality.

This annual release covers data items which are recorded at birth and are of sufficient quality to publish. It is not meant to replace Office for National Statistics birth registration statistics, which should be used for basic births statistics for Wales.

The intention of this release is to provide detail that is not available elsewhere such as gestational age and breastfeeding status, and to demonstrate the possibility for further analysis.

The key points from the latest release are:

• The NCCHD recorded 34,469 live births in 2007 to Welsh residents.
• Mother's age: 8.8 per cent of all live births in 2007 are recorded as being born to mothers aged under 20.
• Gestation: 7.5 per cent of live births were recorded as being born at less than 37 weeks gestational age.
• Birth weight: 7.1 per cent of live births were recorded as having a low birth weight (less than 2,500g)

Contact

Tel: 029 2082 3598
E-mail: stats.healthinfo@wales.gsi.gov.uk