TABLE 25
INFANT MORTALITY BY GESTATIONAL AGE
AND BIRTH WEIGHT
British Columbia, 2002
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- Prematurity (less than 37 weeks of gestation) and low birth weight (less than 2,500 grams at birth) are both important risk factors for infant mortality. About two thirds of infant deaths were premature (61.6%) or had low birth weight (59.9%), and 55.9% were both premature and low birth weight.
- In 2002, of the 177 infant deaths in the province, 66 were term (gestational age 37-41 weeks), two were post-term (42 weeks or more), and 109 were premature (gestational age less than 37 weeks). Among term babies, there were 1.80 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. The infant mortality rate rose dramatically for premature infants; there were 11.76 infant deaths per 1,000 live births with a gestational age of 28 to 36 weeks, and 439.31 deaths per 1,000 live births with 20 to 27 weeks of gestation.
- Of the 109 infant deaths that were premature, 99 were also low birth weight babies, and 77 of these were both extremely premature (gestational age of less than 28 weeks at birth) and very low birth weight (less than 1,500 grams).
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