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TABLE 13:

Highlights:
Tab 13

TABLE 13
LIVE BIRTHS BY BIRTH WEIGHT, GENDER, AND GESTATIONAL AGE
British Columbia, 2001

• There were 20,721 males (51.3%) and 19,655 females (48.7%) born in 2001. The average weight for a live born baby was 3,436 grams, 3,495 grams for males and 3,373 grams for females.

• In 2001, almost nine out of ten live births (35,645) were delivered at term (from 37 to 41 weeks gestation) with normal birth weight (2,500 to 4,499 grams). These babies with &healthy& gestational ages and birth weights accounted for 88.3% of live births in 2001.

• There were 2,008 live births with low birth weight (less than 2,500 grams) and 2,714 pre-term (less than 37 weeks gestation) live births in 2001. A total of 1,442 babies (3.6%) were both pre-term and low birth weight; out of this group, approximately one in nine (163 births) was extremely premature (less than 28 weeks gestation) and had very low birth weight (less than 1,500 grams).

• Post-term (42 or more weeks of gestation) deliveries occurred in 443 births in 2001. There were 1,000 births with high birth weight (4,500 grams or more), 31 of which were also post-term.

• Out of approximately 1,000 live births in 2001:

  by birth weight	by gestational age
  50 were low birth weight (2,008 births), of which: 1 had birth weight less than 500 grams (39) 7 had birth weight from 500 to 1,499 grams (302) 924 were normal birth weight (37,325) 25 were high birth weight (1,000)	67 were pre-term (2,714 births), of which: 4 were extremely premature (less than 28 weeks) (166) 63 were moderately premature (28-36 weeks) (2,548) 921 were term (37,176) 11 were post-term (443)