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TABLE 13:

Highlights:
Tab 13

TABLE 13
LIVE BIRTHS BY BIRTH WEIGHT, GENDER, AND GESTATIONAL AGE
British Columbia, 2002

• There were 20,592 males (51.6%) and 19,301 females (48.4%) born in 2002. The average weight for a live born baby was 3,421 grams, 3,476 grams for males and 3,361 grams for females.

• In 2002, almost nine out of ten live births (35,114) 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 88.0% of live births in 2002.

• There were 2,103 live births with low birth weight (less than 2,500 grams) and 2,811 pre-term (less than 37 weeks gestation) live births in 2002. A total of 1,488 babies (3.7%) were both pre-term and low birth weight; out of this group, approximately one in nine (174 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 402 births in 2002. There were 935 births with high birth weight (4,500 grams or more), 28 of which were also post-term.

• Out of 1,000 live births in 2002, approximately:

  by birth weight	by gestational age
  53 were low birth weight (2,103 births), of which: ~1 had birth weight less than 500 grams (38) ~8 had birth weight from 500 to 1,499 grams (332) 923 were normal birth weight (36,806) 23 were high birth weight (935) 1 did not include birth weight (49)	70 were pre-term (2,811 births), of which: ~4 were extremely premature (less than 28 weeks) (175) ~66 were moderately premature (28-36 weeks) (2,636) 918 were term (36,631) 10 were post-term (402) 1 did not include gestational age (49)