Birthweight and gestation of single births in Belfast

A study was made of mean birthweights and duration of gestation relating to community samples of single births to women resident in Belfast 1962–66. The mean birthweights and gestation times for livebirths were 3,303 g and 39.7 weeks and for perinatal deaths 2,060 g and 34.8 weeks respectively. Some 10 per cent of all perinatal deaths were of less than 28 weeks’ gestation with 65.3 per cent weighing 2,500 g or less at birth. Low birthweight infants were more prevalent in Belfast than in several other comparable areas of the United Kingdom.