A study of liveborn infants in a municipality of Southeastern Brazil, 1996

Introduction The liveborn children were classified by birth weight, maternal age, maternal education level and type of delivery in the light of the importance of discovering the conditions of birth for the planning of mother-child actions. Methodology The population studied consisted of 2,315 liveborn children from the municipality of Passes (MG), 2,311 of whom were born in hospitals and 4 at home, although these latter were immediately taken to hospital. The data refer to the set of children born alive in the municipality from April 12, 1995 to April 30, 1996. Data collection was facilitated by the implantation of the Subsystem of Information about Liveborn Children (SINASC) during that period. The instrument used for data collection was the Declaration of Liveborn Children, an official document of SINASC, The data were fed into a computer and the variables of interest for the present study were surveyed. Results The data showed that: the incidence of low birth weight was 10%, 31.1% of the mothers were between 20 and 24 years old and 19.5% were younger than 20. With respect to educational level, 68.6% of the mothers had received incomplete primary schooling and 5.7% had higher education. The proportion of cesarean sections was 59.1% and the proportion of spontaneous delivery 40.9%.