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Perinatal Health Data in the Brussels Regio, 2014, Centre d'Epidémiologie Périnatale, Bruxelles

METHODOLOGY

The report is developed by using the official statistical data of birth and death in the Brussels Region, combining both the medical and the administrative data. Medical and socio-demographic data are linked and the analysis of evolutions of selected indicators of perinatal health is performed.

RESULTS

A stabilization in the number of births has been observed since 2010 with a maximum number for 2010 (25,095 births). Since 2009, we have been observing an important increase in diabetes rate amongst pregnant women. A slow increase in the rate of cesarean section has been observed from 2009 (18.0 %) to 2013 (20.7 %), mainly concerning elective cesarean. The induction rate increase since 2009, while being close to the rate in Wallonia (31.5 %) – the highest of Europe. Analysis of obstetric practices (induction, caesarean, episiotomy) shows wide disparities between maternities.

DISCUSSION - CONCLUSION

The number of pregnancies with diabetes is increasing due to the multifactorial factors, such as advanced maternal age, urbanization, and increasing prevalence of obesity and physical inactivity, which could be also explained by the combination with the new diabetes screening policy during pregnancy. The increase in the rates of elective caesarean and labor induction seem to characterize the current trend towards «programmed obstetrics». Avoiding the primary (first) caesarean delivery and promoting a vaginal birth after a previous caesarean should be considered in order to contribute to the lowering of caesarean section

Auteurs

Van Leeuw, V., Leroy, Ch., Zhang. Wh., Englert, Y.

Date de publication

Introduction

Since 2008, the “Centre for Perinatal Epidemiology” (CEpiP) collects, analyse and distribute maternal and perinatal health statistics based on the mandatory statistic bulletin filled in for each birth and infantile death in Wallonia and in Brussels. This report presents the results of the statistical analyses of live births and stillbirths in 2014 in Brussels Capital City Region (all births occurring in the Brussels’area).

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